By Koppany Jordan
Elm Staff Writer
With spring in the air and the weather warming up, the bleak winter will be over giving birth to the spring sports season. For many athletes in sports such as baseball, lacrosse, and tennis, the anticipation for the spring season has been great. Hoping to prove themselves on the field, these young men and women have put much time in during the winter to be prepared as the season opens to divide and conquer their opponents.
Two teams that always seem to be working hard are the men and women’s tennis teams. Both squads had relatively successful campaigns in 2012 and look to build on the past year. The men’s team went 9-8 and an impressive 6-3 in the Centennial Conference. The women went 10-8 overall and 6-4 in the Centennial Conference.
Practicing since early September, both the men’s and women’s teams competed in the ITA Southeast Regional Championships at University of Mary Washington exemplifying a strong performance. There the men’s team won 11 matches while the women also competed well. Returning coach, David Donn also seems very optimistic about the spring season.
Coach Donn said, “We have teams that are fairly talented and there is a good outlook for both teams.”
Having lost two seniors to graduation the men’s team looks to step up their game as anyone could be in the number one and two spots. Sophomore Vishnu Rajes may be up for the challenge. He went 2-3 at number two singles last season and 3-4 at number three. Captaining the team will be junior Marc Cywinski who was the team Most Improved player in 2012.
For the women’s team, the mixture of players is a bit different. Losing more to graduation, a larger freshman class emerges, where there is much for these young athletes to learn. However, there is a good balance between the upperclassmen and underclassmen. The team will rely heavily on the leadership of senior captains Kat Cohen and Campbell McNicol. McNicol was awarded Centennial Conference Honorable Mention, going 5-6 at number two singles and 5-2 at number three. Cohen was named last year’s Most Improved Player. She went 5-3 at number three singles, 2-0 at number four and 6-1 at number five.
Both teams, helmed by Coach Dunn, were led to the Centennial Conference Tournament berths last year. Both teams became regionally ranked and saw players earn All-Centennial Conference honors. The Shoremen and Shorewomen seem prepared to face against great adversaries in and outside of the Centennial Conference. With six home games, the two most difficult conference games seem to be against John Hopkins and Swarthmore, for the men’s tennis team, who return strong. However, there is no challenge too big for this team and much is expected of them.
The Shorewomen are expected to play their hearts out against these teams which will be a learning experience for the young players. With a short season, both teams will need to work hard to propel themselves to the May 1 Centennial Conference Championship. For the Shoremen and Shorewomen the season looks good and the future bright for the program in years to come. With their opening match on March 2 both teams play at Goucher before returning home to play St. Mary’s College of Maryland.