By Jonathan Sawyer
Staff Writer
The men’s tennis team suffered its sixth straight loss last weekend to Duquesne.
Playing in a tightly contested match, the Bonnies never lost hope of winning, played a lot more competitively and felt they were equal to the Duquesne team, they said.
“We played very well this weekend, and we could have won this match. The match was a grind. Duquesne is a solid team and is projected to finish third in the A-10,” junior Jacob Mishkin said.
The Bonnies suffered a 5-2 overall loss, but managed to give Duquesne a battle.
After losing the doubles point, freshman Hector Martinez gave the Bonnies a motivational speech, telling them, “We had what it takes to win our respective matches.”
With such young leadership from a freshman, the Bonnies knew themselves that they could defeat the Dukes.
After junior Eduardo Irizarry and freshman Andrew Blair both fought hard, but came up short in their singles matches, freshman Hector Martinez and senior Trevor Haskell gave some life back to the Bonnies, winning their respective matches.
Even though the Bonnies were the underdog coming into the match, none of the players felt that was the case, they said.
“It wouldn’t have been an upset; we work equally as hard as any other program in the A-10,” Mishkin said.
The biggest improvement that needs to be made, Mishkin said, is to win doubles matches. This will provide an emotional boost before the singles matches begin.
Even when the Bonnies seem to get down in matches, the support from the team and coaches is something not often seen with teams who are having a rough season.
Going into this match not favored heavily, perseverance and belief in themselves and their teammates helped them play Duquesne right down to the last point in each match, they said.
The Bonnies will continue to fight as they take on Quinnipiac Sunday, a team who has struggled as of late only winning one out of its past five matches.
The Bonnies and Bobcats with match up Sunday at 10 a.m.
