By Dan Marcus
The Allegheny men’s tennis team is looking forward to getting back on the court after two weeks without a match due to inclement weather. In fact, it is a huge weekend with seeding implications for the NCAC Tournament, which starts next Friday. If the Gators can manage to win both matches they will earn the No. 2 seed in the East Division of the NCAC.
Allegheny faces Oberlin on Friday and Wooster on Saturday. The Yeoman enter the match against Allegheny with a record of 6-14 (1-1), but head coach Jared Luteran said that Oberlin has made marked improvement since their last match.
The Scots enter the match with a record of 4-12 (0-2) and Luteran said the team will enter contest confident.
Freshman Patrick Cole, the team’s top singles player, differentiated between confidence and cockiness.
“It is good to be confident, but obviously you cannot go out there and think you are going to be handed a win,” said Cole.
What makes Luteran most nervous about this weekend is the lack of a solid scouting report for both teams. Wooster has started five freshmen and one sophomore for most of the season, while Oberlin starts freshman at the top two spots in their singles lineup. Therefore, the team has little scouting report about Wooster, and only information on the bottom of Oberlin’s lineup.
One key for the players will be to slightly tweak their games according to the strengths and weaknesses of their opponents.
“During warm-ups I try to see what my opponent is doing and how to best play him,” Cole said.
While the weather leading to rustiness seems to be a reason for concern, Luteran is confident his team can overcome it.
“[The team] came out a little bit flat a few days ago, but by the end of practice the level was back up. I don’t really expect it be an issue again,” said Luteran.
Senior captain Jake Allmaras credited Luteran for keeping morale high.
“Our coach continuously reminds us that we practice how we play,” he said. “That gives the team motivation to work hard and stay focused during practice.”
