by Jennifer Devereaux
staff writer
The men’s tennis team’s first game of the season is Wednesday, March 17. The team, coached by Reggie Day, began practices on Tuesday, Feb.13. The team was No. 1 in the Pennsylvania Athletic Conference last year.
There are nine players on the team, four of which were ranked as part of the top six on last year’s team. Sophomores Scott Giblin and Ian duncan are both returning players. Giblin was the No. 1 singles player and Duncan was the No. 3 singles player. The No. 4 player, Senior Dan McConnell and the No. 6 player Ricky Romyn, have returned as well. Two transfer students are part of this year’s team as well, sophomore Gary Cassara and junior Andy Johnson. The team also includes senior Tony Barrett, sophomore Jeff Hayes and first-year student Lenny Yacona.
The team is preparing for the season by conditioning, working on strokes, doing a lot of drilling, partaking in match play challenges and working on doubles combinations. The team practices on the Cabrini courts Monday through Friday from 4-6 p.m. Sometimes, if practice has been rained out for a couple of days during the week or if there is a weekend match, the team will practice on the weekends. The team won’t be practicing over Spring Break. However, the players will probably practice on their own.
Coach Day anticipates the season’s first game against Widener on March 17 at home to be a good test for Cabrini. This is because Widener’s team has been strong in the past. The following four games will be at home as well. Cabrini will play Newman on March 17, Goucher on March 17, USP on March 20 and Philadelphia University on March 21.
The team will take two trips this season. The first will be a weekend trip in which the team will play Marywood College on March 24 and Wilkes University on March 25. The team will then play two home games, Lebanon Valley on March 27 and Cheyney on March 28. On March 31 the team will play away at West Chester. They’ll play two homes games against Alvernia on April 3 and Gwyned Mercy on April 5. Then they’ll take a week-long trip to Hilton Head, South Carolina from April 6 to 14 where they’ll play Savannah College, Center College, St. Mary’s College and St. Thomas College.
The team will play two home games after they arrive from their week-long trip. They’ll play Beaver on April 19 and Wesley on April 21. They’ll close out the season with the PAC Championships that are held at Eastern from April 27 to 29.
Coach Day said his goals for the season are to “get through without any injuries, get everyone into good playing form during the pre-season and get every player up to their potential.” Day also said, “We did win the Conference last year. No matter how you cut it, every year is new. Even if everyone wants to look at us as one of the top teams in the conference, you still have to get out every match and prove yourself all over again. As long as we play up to our potential, I’m happy.”
