The second half of the collegiate tennis season is more than a month in, and the men’s (2-5) and women’s (5-3) programs have both had their share of ups and downs.
The men’s team got off to a rough start, losing their first five matches, but have turned things around, shutting out Connecticut 7-0 and beating the University of Richmond 4-3.
Head Coach Gordie Ernst said on the season so far, “I think that you try not to celebrate the wins too much and you try to not dwell on the losses too much… If you look at it big picture, I’m relatively happy, especially when we do what we just did in beating Richmond, who was a tougher team than we thought they would be.”
Junior Casey Distaso has been one of the top performers on the men’s team. He is undefeated in singles play since the season resumed in January. Said Ernst, “Casey Distaso is kind of the unsung hero at this point because we’re 2-5, but he hasn’t lost. Casey is one of our captains and he’s a great kid and he’s played a lot of matches for us and he’s 5-0 in singles against teams like Penn and Toledo.”
Sophomore Alex Tropiano and sophomore Daniel Khanin also received praise from Ernst. “Tropiano clinched a couple matches, so he’s stealing some thunder … I think the thing with Danny Khanin being able to do it two days in a row. He just did it two days in a row where he played great tennis back to back.”
The women have had a contrasting season to that of the men. After a loss to Virginia Commonwealth, the Hoyas reeled off five straight victories before falling to Big East foes St. John’s and South Florida in Flushing Meadows.
“We won a handful of points, and if we hadn’t, we could have been 3-5,” Ernst said. “We were only a few points away from beating St. John’s and if things had gone our way, we could have been 6-2, but I’m very happy. The girls have shown great fight. They’re very cohesive and they’ve stepped up in the big moments.”
The women’s team was scheduled to play a match against Providence at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, but the match was cancelled due to issues with facility availability.
Both teams travel to Florida next week to take on a slew of opponents. The women face Florida International next while the men go head to head with Florida Atlantic.
