After finishing the fall season with a perfect record of 5-0, the men’s tennis team aims to continue the streak into the spring season. The Bisons wrapped up the fall by shutting out Hendrix College and head into the offseason with high expectations.
“My goal for the spring season is to continue to work hard and get better, and as a team I think we can win every match we go into,” freshman Jon Mark Rowden said.
Rowden said he credits the successful season in part to the fact that the players are so close. This in turn causes the players to help each other.
Returning junior Adam Edwards said he sees improvement from past seasons and is proud of the team for it. He said the team worked very hard in order to get in better shape, which in turn helped the team beat its biggest rival.
“Our toughest rival was Arkansas Pine Bluff, whom we beat pretty handily this year because of the shape we’re in,” Edwards said. “The new freshmen [also] stepped up and took a big part in winning important matches.”
The players said they agree that they have all worked very had this season to achieve a perfect record. According to Edwards, the team is in better shape than last year, and junior Anthony Saegert agrees.
“This season we are really focusing on our conditioning,” Saegert said. “We’re working in the gym and doing speed drills and agilities. We’ve been stronger, both mentally and physically, than our opponents.”
Saegert said he believes that the team has accomplished a lot during the season starting with beating the University of Fort Smith in the opener and Hendrix College in the home opener. These, according to Saegart, are both very solid teams.
Since the fall season has come to a close, the team will be doing offseason training until spring season begins in February, preparing for difficult competition in the new conference.
“We are really going to focus on our fitness level to stay in shape through the rest of the offseason,” Saegart said. “We have a tough schedule this spring and we’re looking forward to competing in the new conference.”
Edwards said that the team has become tighter since his freshman year and this fact will help them to improve throughout the offseason and spring.
“I think so far this season our team has become closer than the past two years,” Edwards said. “[There was] nothing bad about the other two years. I just think being older has helped, and we all push each other to play better and run harder.”
Men’s spring tennis season starts Tues. Feb. 7 at Hendrix College, and the first home match will be on Fri. Feb. 10 versus John Brown University.
