The spring season for the men’s tennis team starts Friday and with that comes the opportunity for the team to start making headway towards its season goals.
Coach Chris Crawford said the team has three goals for the season that stick to a pretty sequential order.
“Our main goal is to win conference, our second goal is to host the regional and our third is to make the national tournament,” Crawford said.
Jack Joyce, a junior Sport Management major, said that, on a personal level, it would be nice to make the GLVC team again. But the team’s success was his main focus.
“But that’s a bonus. If I don’t get it and the team is winning, that’s what matters,” Joyce said.
That sort of mentality could come from being one of the two upperclassmen that is going to be expected to lead the team this season.
The team, which does not have any seniors, has four freshman, two sophomores and two juniors.
“Joyce and Joel Stern are our juniors. I’d say those guys are the two guys that we are going to lean on. They could be a little bit more vocal sometimes, but they are still learning,” Crawford said.
Joyce said the new players bring an excitement to the team that he thinks is nice.
“It’s been nice to have them; it’s new faces. Four people on our team haven’t played in a spring season,” said Joyce. “So everyone is starting to get excited. I think that’s funneling down to the older guys as well.”
Joyce said that as far as the team dynamic goes he thinks they are in a pretty good position.
The team will play Findlay University at 11 a.m. Friday, at the Evansville Tennis Center. It’s a team Crawford said the Eagles know a little bit about and that they did beat last season.
“I think we are a lot stronger than we were last year. I’m not worried too much about them. If we do what we need to do than we will be fine,” Crawford said.
The GLVC Preseason Coaches’ Poll is another thing that comes with the start of the season. This season the coaches voted and placed USI to finish second in the GLVC East Division.
Crawford had a lot of thoughts on the placement but said that it was just preseason.
“We’ll see what happens,” he said.
Joyce said if it is based on last year’s play and the ITA, it is a pretty fair placement.
“Hopefully we can go up from there,” Joyce said.
The team will play its first match Friday at 11 a.m. against Findlay University at the Evansville Tennis Center.
