Tennis looks to start season strong

Cullen McMahon, BK '97, and Katherine Rhee, BR '97, lead lives of anxiety, concentration, intensity, pain, and sweat. But they love it.

As the men's and women's tennis teams prepare for the spring seasons, captains McMahon and Rhee hope that the fall matches and tournaments will bring the players confidence, concentration, and experience.

Tennis team in action

The men's team hosts the Yale Invitational this weekend, their only home match of the fall. The team, coached by Stephen Bartold, feels quite strong going into the weekend, having come off of an excellent performance at the Swarthmore Invitational last weekend.

A knee injury to key player Reid Lerner, BR '99, did not prevent the Bulldogs from turning in an outstanding performance, especially in the singles brackets.

McMahon captured the singles title in the C-bracket, blowing past Matthias Skjorshammer of Temple in the final.

"I felt a lot more confident in my playing, and I also felt healthier out on the court. The extra training of this semester helped push me through the tough second set, and I am also playing much more aggressively and hitting the ball better than even last season," McMahon said.

John Beardsley, DC '99, had a spectacular weekend, winning the title in the A-bracket, and strong performances from David Beynet, ES '99, Mark Warnken, TD '98, Andrew Tang, SM '98, and newcomer Scott Mayo, CC '00, added to the team's victory.

"I was very pleased with my first two matches," Beynet said, "but I pulled my hip out and was unable to play at the same level in my third match."

He added, "We definitely have a better team than last year, and we have a really good shot at winning the tournament this weekend."

The most promising victory of the tournament for the Blue came from Kevin Park, SY '00, who glided through all of his seven matches with victories in both the singles and doubles draws of the D-bracket.

"Last weekend was a good warm-up, and it was my first match in college, but this weekend will bring much stiffer competition," Park said. "Last weekend was our chance to experiment with doubles pairs and get some match-experience against smaller schools, but this weekend will be a test."

Despite their strong performance last weekend, the team is not satisfied. They seek revenge. They want Harvard, the team that beat them last year at the Yale Invitational.

"They're definitely a strong team, but certainly not unbeatable. Everyone says that they're the best, but they're not any better than anyone else, especially us. We can definitely take them," Martin Amann, ES '97, said.

McMahon summarized the team's hopes, saying, "We have a talented, youthful team with a great chance of winning the Ivy championship. We have the talent and the determination, we just need to continue to execute it as we did last weekend. No one will be satisfied with anything less than the championship."

The women's team recently came off of a 5-4 away victory over Boston College on Tues., Sept. 24.

Sara Naison-Phillips, BR '99, had a tremendous match at No. 1 singles, pulling it out after the match seemed to be over.

"It was a really tight match the whole way. I was down 6-3, 5-2, and two points away from losing, but I was determined not to lose, so I gutted it out. Every match was like that, however, so we really pulled it out as a team," Naison-Phillips said.

Team captain Rhee and Jackie Fu, MC '00, also took home the No. 2 doubles match. "We had a slow start, but towards the end we really stepped up. After the match, it was clear that we should be playing doubles together."

This year's women's team is especially young, with only one senior, no juniors, five sophomores, and four freshmen. The team has plenty of time to develop, but really wants to win for their captain, who has one last chance at the championship.

"We'd really like to win for Kat because it's her last year, and she's a great captain. We're just getting back into the groove right now, but by the end of the season I think we will be playing our very best," Naison-Phillips said.

Naomi Zeff, SM '99, Denitza Blagev, MC '99, Maria Parad, BK '99, Kirsten Gross, DC '00, and Barb Ellis, BK '00, round out the younger crowd. After a few more matches, they feel they will have a lot more confidence and be able to play at a much higher level.

The team's next match will be at the Brown Invitational Tournament, the weekend of Oct. 4. They also look forward to the ECAC's, which Yale will be hosting at the Cullman Courts this year, as well as the match against Rutgers.

During the spring season, the Elis will travel west to Idaho and California, where warmer weather permits play in the early spring, to face some talented competition, before returning to the east coast for Ivy play and the remainder of the schedule.

Rhee was able to put the upcoming fall and spring seasons in perspective when asked to comment on the start of her last year as a Bulldog. "It's sad, but I really want to win this year, and there is no reason why we shouldn't finish at the top. We have great coaches and players who all respect each other, and our goal is definitely to win the Ivy championship."