The USI men’s tennis team finished up its regular season with two wins this past weekend playing Saint Joseph’s College on Saturday and the University of Indianapolis (UIndy) on Sunday finishing with a 19-2 overall record, 5-0 record in the Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC).

The men’s tennis team won all of its matches against Saint Joseph’s College 9-0, and dropped one match against the University of Indianapolis, 8-1. The men’s tennis team head into the GLVC tournament this Friday held in Drury University in Springfield, Mo.

The women’s tennis team also defeated Saint Joseph’s College this past weekend wining seven of its nine matches, but lost against the UIndy 2-7, the following day. The women’s tennis team will go into its last regular season match up against the University of Evansville April 18  with a 8-9 overall record, 3-3 in the GLVC. They will also be participating in the GLVC tournament this weekend in Springfield.

Going into the post-season the USI tennis team finds its strength in singles play.

“We all came to USI as singles players so when it comes to playing doubles you have to be more aware of what your partner is doing,” junior women’s tennis player Ellena Stumpf said. “That is the difference when it comes to our team doubles verses singles.”

To build chemistry as a doubles team, men’s doubles partners Diego Gimenez and Juan Quiroz work on their relationship as friends to strengthen their team.

“Doubles partners have to be pretty good friends,” senior men’s tennis player Gimenez said. “It isn’t like we each have separate jobs on the court, we have one job which is to win the match. If you’re not very good friends your team isn’t going to work as well.”

For the past two years the men’s tennis team has been runner-ups in the GLVC conference tournament and look to win the tournament this year.

“Being runner-up for the past two years has been something that has bothered us,” Gimenez said. “We have become closer as a team this year and I think that is something that really important because we had the talent to win conference last year but we weren’t as close and that something that I think matters.”

One weaknesss that men’s tennis head coach Chris Crawford foresees hindering the team’s chances of winning at conference is mental toughness.

“More than half of tennis is being mentally strong and being mentally prepared for another team,” Crawford said. “The only way you can fix that is constantly reminding them to stay positive.”

The championship match for the GLVC conference tournament for men’s and women’s tennis will be played on Saturday.