With classes winding down for Lawrence students, it is also time for the Men’s Tennis team to wrap up their season. In the North Division of the Midwest Conference (MWC), Lawrence placed fourth out of five teams, finishing with a 1-3 Conference record. This put them in eighth place, overall, in the MWC.
When asked about his favorite meet of the season, sophomore Ethan Perushek chimed in, “Knox was definitely my favorite meet of the season. Our team was down a few guys. Two were serving underhand, which is an extreme disadvantage, due to injury. And we still won the match through great effort by everyone. Plus I had a really long match that ended in us winning the whole team match.”
Perushek was referring to the meet on March 1 at Knox College where Lawrence came home with a 5-4 win. In this meet, Perushek and freshman David Jumes led the way in singles competition, and Jumes and his fellow freshman teammate Sam Wiener playing outstanding doubles.
Perushek even named Jumes MVP for the season, stating, “The kid is a tank first year on the team! He took whatever was thrown at him and constantly improved. A great kid also, always smiling.”
The toughest competition for the Vikings this season was definitely Grinnell College. “This is the fourteenth year in a row they have won conference,” Perushek mentioned. The Vikings took on Grinnell on the Pioneers’ home turf back on March 8.
Even in LU’s 8-1 loss against defending conference champion Grinnell, Jumes stood out. He was the only Lawrence player in singles competition to walk away with a win.
Overall, it was a hard fought season for the Vikings. They did well in conference and have high hopes for next year. Perushek gave a glimpse into the teams planning for the 2015 season and said, “Overall, we want to improve our record and just keep developing as a team. We are a young team, so we still have growing to do.”