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St. Cloud State University
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Tennis teams netting wins
By Ben Birnell
Published:
Monday, March 24, 2003
Media Credit: Blair Schlichte
SCSU captain Berit Merrill serves it up to Emporia State�s Darcy Wells last Thursday at Gold�s Gym in Sartell.
SARTELL -- Armed with a few good athletes, and some blazing rackets, the SCSU men and women's tennis teams have come on strong in their 2003 seasons compiling records of 13-4 and 16-4, respectively.
The men's team has stayed pretty much intact from last year's NCC championship team. Five conference champions are still wielding rackets for the Huskies in Casey Haselwander, Robert Skenzich, Bryann Baumann, Josh Lunak and Zac O'Donnell.
Three newcomers also joined the Husky ranks as Chad Olson (St. Cloud), Jeff Horner (Grand Forks) and Titus Christianson (Fergus Falls) grabbed spots on the team.
The men's team found their to winning ways early this season and picked up where they left off from the 2002 season, smashing the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire in a 9-0 rout back on Feb. 7. SCSU picked up two more wins from Michigan Tech and Winona State, before dropping a heartbreaking 9-0 loss to Wayne State.
The Huskies regained their winning ways and picked up seven consecutive wins before their spring break trip to sunny Florida. There, they beat their opponents by a combined 58-5 to push their record to 10-1. SCSU's trip to Florida wouldn't go as well as their earlier matches, but they came home with a 12-4 record after the break. According to head coach Jerry Anderson, it was a good trip regardless.
"Our season has gone very well," Anderson said. "Florida was a good trip for us because we saw some really good competition, which will make us stronger in the end and help us gear up for the conference championships."
Senior team captain Haselwander also had a good outlook on the trip to Florida.
"It was a good time," he said. "But the thing is, you go down to Florida and we think we're the best team in Minnesota. And then we played some of the teams down there...it kind of puts things into perceptive. Overall, it may have not looked good on paper, but the experience is the main part for us."
Anderson said that his team's record is a total team effort and said that it was the play from his doubles pairs that have surprised him the most.
"Everyone's had their ups and downs (this season)," he said. "Normally we've been a singles dominated team, but our doubles teams have been playing very well together and it's working nicely."
"We're doing really well as a team," Haselwander said. "The four losses that we have came from really good teams that were better than us. But I think we're on the right track to win conference and make the NCAA Tournament."
Haselwander said that his singles game was up and down, but indicated everything was going well and he's picked up his game from last year.
Last Thursday, the men took on Emporia State University and came away with much the same results as they've gotten thus far, walloping the visiting Kansas team 9-0. Christianson, whom Anderson said was a perfect fit at the number two spot coming in as a freshman, had a good day. Christianson said it was the team's overall play that was pushing him.
"I don't what it is? But we're all playing really well right now," Christianson said. "Today went really well for me. I had a lot of fun."
On the women's side, head coach Larry Sundby and company have compiled a 15-4 record and things are looking good for the team. Freshman Courtney Hover had a 19-10 record going into last Thursday's matches with ESU. Captains Berit Merrill (St. Cloud) and Alyssa Lauritsen (Milan) have also contributed greatly to their team's success with records of 20-11 and 16-10, respectively.
The women posted three big wins early in the season including a 9-0 stomping of Southwest State, before losing to Gustavus 9-0. They would rebound and have a 12-3 record before spring break.
Sundby had nothing but good things to say about his team's performance this season.
"We had a good week down in Florida winning three of four matches," Sundby said. "It was a good chance to see some schools that we don't normally get to see."
Merrill said the trip to Florida was a good experience, but said it was a little rough because most of the team got sick. They played well nonetheless.
"We got some good experience to play some of those teams," Merrill said. "We pulled through considering we were sick."
As far as the season goes, Sundby is happy with his team. He said that in his mind, the team was exceeding the expectations he set before the season.
"We've had a couple of really nice wins where we were the underdogs, we're doing about as well as we can possibly do," he said. "Our top two players, Berrit and Nicole, have done well this year. But we have a lot of players that are contributing. You can't win with just two players."
Thursday's matches against ESU also went well for the women. SCSU's top four singles players (Merrill, Nicole Lechner, Sara Eull and Hover) all won their matches in straight sets. They also took all three doubles matches to win handily, 7-2.
"The season has gone really good, we kind of hit a rough spot in Florida but things are going well. It gets better with each match we play," Merrill said.
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