By Erica Granados
IV Leader Staff
The men’s tennis team has won the last five matches after two season-opening
losses.
The most recent win, at press time, was both good news and bad because #1 player Rob Washo
injured his shoulder.
The Eagles won that match, on April 10 against Waubonsee, 8 - 1, and despite his injury, Washo did play doubles.
Coach Eric Perez said his team should have beat Waubonsee 9 -0.
“Rob (Washo) had a couple tough matches, and then with him getting hurt, there’s only so much you can ask of him,” Perez said.“It’s kind of unfortunate because you have to deal with things like that,” the coach said. “If Rob’s shoulder was holding up, he would be doing especially well.”
Washo is at 3 - 4 in singles action, and he and Ryan Blanco are at 5 - 2 in doubles.Perez said the rest of the team did very well against Waubonsee.
“That (Waubonsee victory) keeps them in line for number one seed in the region,” Perez said. “They were on and off the court quickly. They just went out there and beat their opponents and didn’t really take much time in doing it.”
In earlier matches, the Eagles beat Sauk Valley 8 - 1 on April 6, beat Elgin 6 - 3 on April 4, and had 9 - 0 wins against DuPage on April 3 and Oakton March 30.
“The people who are standing out the most would be Blanco, (David) Prego and (Kevin) Olsen,” Perez said. “They’re just taking care of business.”
Blanco, the #2 player, is at 6 - 1; Prego, the #3 player, and Olesen, the #4 player, are both at 5 - 2.
In doubles, Prego and Oleson are also at 5 - 2.In singles and doubles, Jason Garner at #5 and Tim McGeorge at #6 are at 4 - 3.
The men have two home matches coming up, Rock Valley at 2:30 p.m. on April 19 and Knox College at 4 p.m. on April 23.Perez expects the Rock Valley match to be a challenge.
“From what I hear, Rock Valley is a really good team,” he said, noting that last year the IVCC team won one and lost one to them.“I think we have improved since last year so it’s going to be interesting to see what happens,” he said.
Perez expects the team to continue the winning streak and go 9 - 2 for the season.
“We just got to tune up the region play and make sure Rob is heathy so when we get to the region tournament, we can run the table and qualify for nationals like we did last year,” he said.