CU tennis reaches for full potential

By Brian Norton
Sports Editor

	Eckart

Although it was only three tournaments long, the men’s tennis fall season showed potential, but there are still kinks to work out heading into the spring season.

“ I think we set our expectations pretty high this year. I guess the main word for our men’s team this year is potential. We are nowhere near our potential right now. We’ve got a couple months here before break comes to get closer to that potential and keep working at it hard when we get back in January,” Coach Tom Lilly said.

Lilly added that he is pushing the players harder in all aspects of practice in order to get ready for the spring season.

The best showing for the team was during the Bluejay Challenge, its only home event of the season. The team took home one title and two third-place finishes at the Koch Family Tennis Center before Fall Break.

Freshman Mike Elson won the title for the Jays, defeating sophomore teammate Ross Allen in the Flight D singles final. The Jays wrapped up third place in both Flights B and C, with seniors Vinny Meens and Eduardo Pignatari winning in the consolation finals.

The best individual performance of the season came from junior transfer Joe Eckert.

“ I guess the biggest positive was we had our transfer student, Joe Eckert, reach the finals of the Drake Invite and ended up losing to a very good Drake player. He beat three solid players along the way,” Lilly said.

In their final tournament of the season, the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Regional Tournament in Tulsa, Okla., the Jays had two players in the main draw, freshmen Nikita Dudar and Jose Guerra, and three players in the qualifying round, Eckert, Meens and junior Chris Miller. Eckert and Meens also competed in the doubles tournament.

Meens, Eckert and Miller each won their first matches in qualifying but lost in their second matches and did not qualify for the main draw.

“ It was good that they won their first match. All three of those matches were competitive matches, and they were against good players,” Lilly said.

Dudar and Guerra, the top two Jays, took Creighton’s two main draw spots, but both were out-matched by stronger opponents.

“ They competed hard, but they’re just not at that level yet,” Lilly said.

The individual fall season is mostly a warm-up for the team season in the spring, which starts for the Jays on Feb. 3, 2006, at Oral Roberts.

Lilly stressed that the team needed to be more consistent to reach its potential.

“ It’s either we’re consistent and don’t have the big shots or have the big shots and aren’t consistent,” Lilly said. “That’s why I think potential is the key word. I think our game has quite a bit of potential, but we’ve really got to work on our weaknesses and to build our strengths in order to reach our potential.

“ I think I have learned that we have potential, but we’re not there yet.”