Blink and you’ll miss it. Or get hit in the head. Either way, the ball moves fast, but so do the players, so do the points, the games, the sets, the matches and soon the entire season. So, before the season comes to a close all too quickly, let’s take a look back at the season the Lawrence Men’s Tennis team has had so far.
It has only been two weeks, but the men’s team has already played three matches with a 2-1 record. Matches kicked off the weekend of Jan. 25-26 in Winona, Minn., where the Vikings faced St. Mary’s University and Carleton College. After sweeping the doubles matches versus St. Mary’s, earning the Vikings the doubles point, senior Andrew Larson and sophomores Gabriel Garcia and Cole Witucki came through in straight-set wins to give the team a 4-3 victory and their first win of the season. Shortly after, the team went back to the Airbnb and played some Trivial Pursuit to finish off the evening. The next morning, the team watched Jannik Sinner win the 2025 Australian Open before setting off to play the highly talented Carleton team. Although the match didn’t go the way of the Vikings, motivation remained constant for the following weekend ahead of the matchup versus the University of Northwestern-St. Paul, a team the Vikings had never faced before.
On Feb. 1, both Men’s and Women’s Tennis battled, truly battled, against the Eagles at their home opener at Fox Cities Racquet Club. For the men, after a tough go at doubles and a slow start to singles, the Vikings found themselves down 1-3 and a set away from losing. However, after a tremendous comeback from a set down by first-year Benjamin Hoppe, Garcia and Witucki, playing at lines three, five and six singles respectively, the Vikings came away with a 4-3 win, which was celebrated with a charging of Witucki’s court after clinching the final match that evening for the men’s team.
The women’s team also put up a valiant effort, with victories coming from first-year Clara Hills, sophomore Logan Kane and senior Maya Alberts at lines one, two and four singles respectively. Ultimately, the team came up just short, narrowly losing 3-4 to the Eagles. However, there were several positives to take away from the matches. For example, Alberts, who had not played for the team previously, won her first ever collegiate tennis match, starting her tennis career undefeated on top of a very successful soccer campaign here at Lawrence. First-year Rachel Pofahl also nearly came back to force a final set tiebreak. After being a set and 2-5 down in the second set, Pofahl surged back to force a tiebreaker for the second set, which just went the way of the Eagles. The final takeaway from this is that despite it being the offseason for the team, they almost defeated a strong Eagles team that had success in previous years.
The men’s team will hit the road this weekend to face off against Illinois Wesleyan and Concordia University Chicago in Illinois on Friday, Feb. 7 and Saturday, Feb. 8 and will look to build on a strong start to the season. The next home match for the men will be against Martin Luther at Fox Cities Racquet Club on March 1 at 2 p.m., which will be followed by a combined men’s and women’s ‘home’ match versus Edgewood and the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point on March 2 at the Ogden YMCA at 1:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. Make sure to come out and support both teams as the men’s team prepares to make their bid for a spot in the Midwest Conference end-of-season tournament in April and the women’s team continues to improve, and win, ahead of their regular season in the fall.