The IU men’s tennis team will conclude its fall season this weekend with its sixth and final tournament before a couple months of rest before the ball starts rolling again in late January.
The Hoosiers travel to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to compete in the Wake Forest Invitational. The team will take eight guys to compete against some of the top ACC and SEC talent in the country.
Traveling will be senior Stefan Lugonjic, juniors Raheel Manji and Keivon Tabrizi, and sophomore Afonso Salgado. Also accompanying the group will be the four members — Will Piekarsky, Payam Ahmadi, Zac Brodney and Bennett Crane — of the highly touted freshman class.
Though fall tournaments don’t mean much in terms of wins and losses for the team, the individual results start to play a factor when the spring season begins.
This weekend will serve as one of the final opportunities for the freshmen to make their cases to be in the starting lineup when head-to-head matches begin in the spring.
“When we look at making the lineup in the spring, we do look at results from the fall,” Assistant Coach Mike Murray said. “This is an opportunity for the freshmen to go prove themselves and show what level they are on.”
The freshmen will have a tough task in front of them because many returning players are preparing to feature in the lineup. However, tournaments like this one are an opportunity for freshmen to separate themselves from the pack.
The main goal of the fall tournaments is to give freshmen experience and provide returning players with opportunities to play other teams’ top talent and improve their game.
“We have worked really hard this fall, but freshmen are still freshmen, and there is a learning curve,” Murray said. “We are patient with it, but at the same time we know they are good enough to go beat people.”
Coming into the year, the freshman class was highly rated and possibly one of the best the Hoosiers have had. The freshmen have had positive effects on the team’s work ethic and the overall chemistry of the team.
Last week, senior Matthew McCoy said this team was the most tight-knit team he has had during the course of his collegiate career. The chemistry of the team is improving, and that is what the coaches want to see more than anything leading into the spring season.
“The culture of our team is headed into the right direction,” Murray said. “We have 11 guys that love pushing each other every day.”
