The Georgetown men’s and women’s tennis teams traveled to Charlottesville and Blacksburg, Va., respectively, last weekend for the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s Atlantic Regionals. Unfortunately, in preparing for their upcoming season, the men’s and women’s teams fell short of any large victories at the invitational.
Of the seven men who traveled to the competition, six competed in the singles bracket.
The standout performance came from Marco Lam, a freshman from Hong Kong, and the only singles player to advance to the second round, defeating William and Mary’s Scott Huang 7-5, 6-1. He was defeated by Penn State senior Tomas Hanzlik in the round of 64, 6-3, 6-1.
Georgetown Head Coach Gordie Ernst praised Lam’s performance along with the performance of fellow freshman, Peter Beatty. “Peter Beatty and Marco Lam, they showed really good promise… They just showed what they’ve been doing all fall. They are very, very competitive and were able to bring their best tennis at times.”
At the same time, Ernst acknowledged the overall subpar performance of the men’s team on the road.
“I wasn’t thrilled with the performance. We certainly had our moments… There’s no question we could have done better.”
The women’s team sent four singles competitors and two doubles teams. They had a similarly disappointing performance. “We were expecting to do better,” Ernst said.
The performances by the two teams point to a larger problem the tennis teams are experiencing: lack of practice space.
“[Relocating] has been challenging. We have a good backup site at Georgetown Visitation, but it certainly isn’t easy. We have to be out of there before 3 o’clock. A lot of times, when kids get out of class, that’s when we can do our best individual work and whatnot. Those are the things we are missing out on right now. We’re just trying to make due.”
Still, Ernst believes the teams will be prepared to take on their Big East competitors come January. “We can [win] it. We have enough talent and we have enough veterans to win the Big East this year—I really believe that.”
