The Observer, April 11, 2008
Volume XL, Issue 24
Men snap winning streak, women break losing streak
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Snapping their eight-game winning streak, Case men's tennis lost to a strong Denison team, fighting back with several tie-breaks, 2-7.
"I don't think that it necessarily hurt our momentum. Things didn't go our way against Denison; we came in knowing they were going to be tough," said junior Allen Ye.
The regionally ninth-ranked Big Red couldn't find a way to beat Kenneth Nguyen, as the junior went on to win the Spartans only singles set, defeating Denison's Kevin Newman 6-4, 6-1. Nguyen also won his doubles match with junior Adam Erickson, 8-6.
"A lot of the sets could have gone either way. If you look at all the scores several sets had more than 12 games," said senior Joe Smetona.
Ye, second singles for the match against Denison, lost both sets 5-7, 0-6.
"The second set was a lot closer than the score indicates. A lot of balls just didn't go my way. Also, during all the big points I didn't convert and he took advantage. So even though it was 0-6, he had to fight for every point," said Ye.
Unfortunately for the Spartans, an injury inflicted last weekend prevented third singles player Mike Peterson from competing on Tuesday. After an overhead smash, Peterson, to avoid landing on his racket and bending it, landed awkwardly, spraining his ankle, and incapacitating him for at least the week.
"Missing a few players definitely hurt us against Denison. I think they are a beatable team. We didn't play as well as we could have," said sophomore John Smetona.
After losing to Carnegie Mellon 1-8 on March 1, the Spartans went on a tear in Hilton Head, S.C. Losing only three matches against five different opponents, Case's tennis players grew as a team.
"This year has just been so much fun. Spring break we went 5-0 and it was pretty exciting. Picking up some wins, the coaching situation has vastly improved. We're getting a bit of camaraderie that I think will only get stronger," said Ye.
On April 5, the Spartans beat Tiffin handedly 8-1. Their only loss was Zach Newman at third singles. The Smetona brothers both defeated their opponents 6-0, 6-0.
"Tennis is really a game of practice. The people you see that are really good have been playing since they were 10. I mean, it's possible to have upsets. Tiffin just was not as good as us," said Smetona.
Hoping to recover from injuries, the Spartans don't have another match until April 19 against the ranked Kenyon College Lords. Soon after that is the UAA competition where Case received seventh for their efforts last year.
On Monday at Wooster, the women's tennis team broke its six-game losing streak, defeating the Scots 6-3. Tina Chen, Case's third singles, went into a match tie-break where she lost, 1-6, 3-6, 2-10.
Kristen Ko, Marta Worwag, Jennifer Clever, and Emily Hoffman all won both their singles and doubles matches, propelling the Spartans to their 2-7 record. On April 14 the women compete against Tiffin University at home.
