<< Front page Sports March 12, 2004

Yeomen sweep the weekend

Tennis remains undefeated after latest victories

The Oberlin men’s tennis team has started the season at a scorching pace, defeating each of their opponents. Six matches and two weeks into the season, the team is 6-0 overall and 2-0 in North Coast Athletic Conference play.

Last weekend, the team competed against Capital University and Earlham College in the Heisman Fieldhouse.

On Saturday, the Yeomen won all nine matches of the day, claiming a 7-0 victory (singles victories count as one point each, and the team that wins the majority of doubles gets one point).

The Yeomen controlled all six singles matches. Senior Jamie Frankel was the only Oberlin player to have his match extended to extra sets, winning 7-5, 6-7, 10-7 in the number one slot. Fellow senior Marian Bocek manned the number two slot, winning 6-1, 7-5.

Frankel was happy to have won, but maintains a focus on the rest of the season. “Most of us played pretty well in the matches,” he said. “We can still play better, though, none of us want to stop here. We want to keep going and take it to the next level.”

In their familiar roles in number three and four slots, juniors Nick Ogren and Mark Knee won their matches 6-1, 6-0 and 6-1, 6-1.

Sophomore James Rosenhiem and first-year Aaron Parker both won in commanding fashion. Rosenhiem won all 12 games, 6-0, 6-0. Parker won 6-1, 6-1.

A great deal of the team’s success this year can be attributed to the hard work put in leading up to the season. This year’s team has four coaches to instruct the 10 players, which has been a great help.

“I think that we are really lucky to have four coaches that for the most part spend all of their free time helping us out with a lot more than our tennis. Coach Hunsinger, Professor Piron, coach Shoemaker and Mr. Erickson all complement each other extremely well,” Frankel said.

This success was carried over to Sunday where they dismantled conference opponent Earlham.

The same lineup from Saturday was used except for one change; first-year Arthur Zeyda replaced Parker in the number six singles position. This match was particularly pleasant. Last season Earlham defeated Oberlin 4-3 in the conference tournament.

After completing the sweep Sunday morning, a glow spread throughout the team.

“It was good to beat them after the circumstances behind our loss in the conference championships last year,” Frankel said. “We dominated the match 7-0 and swept the doubles, which is a good thing.”

This coming weekend the team has only one match, when they take on Walsh University on Saturday at home at 12 p.m.

This match looks to be a key part of the team’s schedule.

“This weekend we took care of business and avenged a tough loss from last year against Earlham,” Knee said. “Our toughest challenge of the season thus far will be this weekend against Walsh.”

The Yeomen seem to realize the potential their team has and want to continue to build upon each victorious match.

“My individual as well as our team’s impressive results up to this point give a strong indication that we have a legitimate chance to fight for the conference title this year,” Bocek said.


 
 
   

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