Men’s tennis scrambles to finish games
By Britta House and JJ Ossola
IV Leader Sports writers, April 12, 2007
While the Illinois Valley Community College’s men’s tennis
team record is 1-1, Coach Steve Swett says that “the team is strong at every
level,” with nine players on the roster. He added, “The team is showing great
promise and continues to improve at practices. We are planning to make it to
nationals as a team.”
Two of the seven regional teams will be qualified at the end
of the season. On March 16th at the Centre Court in Hanover Park, the Eagles
lost 2-7, to Elgin Community College. Three of the matches were tie breakers,
all were lost by IVCC. The Eagles who lost in tie breakers were freshman Jordan
Terzick, sophomore Dylan Slupianek and sophomore Nick Wangelin. Swett named
sophomore Kyle Entwistle the player of the match. Swett stated, “Kyle showed
great endurance with his win over Elgin, and we are expecting him to win the
majority of his matches.” Swett added, “Kyle has been playing very strong at the
5 position. I am very pleased with his progress.”
On March 25 the Eagles squared off against the College of
Lake County at the Ottawa township courts, and won 6-3. Due to weather concerns,
the match was moved to Ottawa but was not a scheduled home game. Swett said, “A
win against a ‘Chicago’ team is a good barometer for how we will do during the
season. We had a strong showing in both singles and doubles play. The win is a
real plus for how are team will do down the stretch, against schools who play
all year long and indoors.”
On March 31 the Eagles traveled to Clock Tower Center to play
Rock Valley Community College, and were defeated 0-9. Rock Valley is not in the
same division as IVCC, so the loss does not affect their record.
Finally, IVCC played a home match in Ottawa against Lakeland
Community College. They were also defeated, 8-1. The only win of the series was
a doubles team of Jordan Terzick and Jake Richter. Richter has recently joined
the team after recuperating from a basketball injury. IVCC holds home matches
and some practices at the Ottawa Township High school. The team also practices
at Washington park in Peru.
Swett said, “The weather has really made things difficult for
us this year. A lot of our games have to be rescheduled and we are running out
of dates. We are backed up right now in terms of games we need to play before
regional tournaments begin [April 27-29.]” The regional tournaments must fall
into place with the national tournaments, which begin soon after March.