Mary Washington’s men’s tennis bury claws into Salisbury University at home

by THOMAS JACKSON

Sports Editor

On Wednesday afternoon, the Mary Washington men’s tennis team went against Salisbury University at home, defeating them by a score of 4–3.

Going into the match, UMW was ranked 19th in the country for NCAA Division III, while Salisbury was ranked 25th. Matthew Scott, sophomore international affairs major, spoke on how the teams current position compares to their expectations from the beginning of the season.

“If you had told me at the beginning of the year that we were gonna be top 20, I would take that in a heartbeat, so I mean I’ve been super happy with how all of us have been playing,” Scott said. “There’s been some matches where we definitely could have taken them and we lost and there was just 50/50s that hurt us, but overall I’ve been super happy with our performance so far this season.”

Mary Washington started the day slowly, losing all three doubles matches by scores of 6–7, 0–6 and 2–6. 

Scott spoke on the importance of energy and savoring every point in double matches. 

“Just bringing the energy, for doubles especially, even on every point, I and my partner always bring the energy no matter how big or small that point is, and that just gives us confidence in each other,” Scott said.

After losing their three double matches, Mary Washington was in need of a reset before playing single matches. Senior business administration major Brock Ladehoff says that reminding his teammates to stay focused on the overall match and not on every lost point is important for keeping team morale high.

“I like to tell my teammates when I sit down with them on the bench or whatever, I’m like, ‘hey guys stay positive, it’s a really hard game. You’re gonna fail, you’re gonna lose points, but tennis is a marathon, so try not to focus on what’s currently happening, but think with the big picture,’” Ladehoff said.

The singles matches started with UMW losing their first match in two sets. Following this loss, the Eagles took the second and fourth matches in two straight sets before taking the third, fifth and sixth matches to a third set. 

For all three matches that went to a third set, Mary Washington lost in the first set. Evan Fisher, sophomore biomedical sciences major, said that the grit and fight to make it to that third set is what made the win possible. 

“Just fighting out there quite frankly we didn’t play the best in the doubles, some guys didn’t play the best in singles, but we just kind of hung around, kept fighting, got the job done eventually,” he said.

Fisher participated in the third singles match, after dropping the first set 4–6, Fisher rallied and won the next two sets by 6–2 and 6–4. While in the second and third set, his teammates came around the court to support and cheer him on after their matches were over. Fisher says that while it felt good to have the team behind him, it was the concentration and focus he had that helped win the match. 

“It’s nice, it always makes you feel good, but I honestly wasn’t really paying attention to that, I was pretty locked into the match,” Fisher said. “Trying to stay focused, stay with my pattern, stay with my shots, trying to get through the finish line.”

The Eagles would go on to win the fifth match and lose the sixth. Sophomore economics major Jack Riordan said that winning when they needed to is what allowed the team to reach the third sets and fight for a chance to win the day.

“We just succeeded when we needed to, lots of third sets, but we came out of them,” he said.

Reflecting on the season as it comes to an end with only two regular season matches left, Ladehoff hopes that the chemistry and culture the team has now continues onto next year, even after he graduated.

“I hope the culture and chemistry, how good it is now, I hope that carries over to the next group of freshmen coming in and I’m looking forward to the next group of leaders because we have three seniors leaving.” Ladehoff said. “The juniors and the sophomores currently, that will be juniors and seniors, step up and carry on the culture and some other things because we have such a great team dynamic.”

Riordan echoed this sentiment, hoping that everyone on the team gets stronger and becomes more of a family to hopefully get even more wins next season. 

“What I’m looking forward to most is the team chemistry, just getting stronger and stronger every year,” he said. “Everyone being a family and hopefully getting some more wins next year.”

With the seniors on the verge of leaving, Scott reflected on the influence of the upperclassman and how he hopes to be able to take the good habits he’s seen from them in the coming years. 

“They’ve been showing up for four years here and it’s just an inspiration to us to always keep going,” Scott said. “Even when times are hard, having to wake up for lifts, but just seeing those guys consistently do it and seeing them been doing it for four years is something that I can take from for sure.”

When asked about the future of the team, both this season and the following, Fisher believes that how young the team is will be a benefit and shock teams in bigger tournaments. 

“We’re a very young team so I think we’ll be able to have some good runs in the NCAA tournament come down the road, and once we get there I think once we all develop a little bit more. I think we can be a super big problem for a bunch of different schools.”

Along with age, Riordan said that how involved everyone is with the team is what gives them strength. Even if someone is not playing on the court alongside them, just by cheering they are helping along the team. 

“Everyone wants to be there, everyone’s a team, even if you’re not in, you’re still in. you’re helping us win with cheering each other on and everything, and even off the court I would say it’s being there for each other.” 

Fisher claimed that the talent of the roster will come to shine, and when everything comes together, they will be able to pull off big team wins.

“We have a whole bunch of talent on this roster, and that’s just a matter of can we all bring it together at the right time to make things happen, get some big wins and stuff like that.”

The Eagles next match will be April 21 on the road against Barton College 

“We all have a lot of school pride, we all love Mary Washington,” said Ladehoff. “We have a blessed facility . . . we just have so much heart. We love our school and we’re out here to be playing and representing Mary Washington.”