By Mikael DeSanto
Staff Writer
The spring season has kicked off for the St. Bonaventure men’s and women’s tennis teams. The men’s team opened its season with a loss to Youngstown State, while the women started the season with losses to Penn State and Navy on Jan. 15 and 16.
On the men’s side, freshman Miki Nobuzawa picked up the Bonnies only win, winning his match in three sets.
“If you look at the scores, a lot of the games were close,” Nobuzawa said. “It gave us a good idea of where we are at.”
The women’s team was shut out 7-0 by Penn State and picked up one win against Navy, with Mara Martinez-Santori winning her singles match.
“As a team, we performed pretty well,” sophomore Francesca Chin said. “We all came back and fought; that’s the most important thing.”
With their first meets behind them, both teams know what they must do to begin their spring seasons the right way.
“The most important thing to remember is that the first two or three tournaments are always the toughest because we play without having the ‘tournament match play rhythm’,”sophomore Victor Blanco said. “We should adjust for the rest of the season and get in the rhythm of match play to build up our confidence progressively for A10’s.”
Coach Michael Bates sees where there is room for improvement for both teams. He sees the women’s team needs to improve in both team and individual play.
“We really need to work on our doubles, we need to do a little bit better with movement at the net,” Bates said. “In singles, we just have to be a little more consistent and know when to go for our shots, and when not to.”
For the men’s team, Bates sees the youth of his team, as they have only one senior, followed by two sophomores and three freshmen as their starters.
“We need to get experience, we need experience as much as possible,” Bates said. “I think some of the freshmen were a little bit overwhelmed. As we get used to going throughout the season they should improve.”
The players also see how they need to improve from the opening performances. Chin sees the importance of practice and hard work for her team.
“More intense team practices, learning from our mistakes,” Chin said. “I think just using every match as a stepping stone towards doing well at A10’s is our biggest goal.”
Senior Eduardo Irizarry sees hard work and confidence as a key to playing better as the season goes on.
“The most important thing that we have to improve is on match play and staying positive,” Irizarry said. “We were all close to winning from the top to the bottom to the line-up.”
The next match for both teams will take place this weekend against the Niagara Purple Eagles. Sophomore Dominique Mortier considers building off of the last matches as the key for the women’s team when facing Niagara.
“We’ve been working hard for the past week,” Mortier said. “We’ve been working on what we struggled in with Navy and Penn State, working on our weaknesses, just trying to get better as a team.”
Blanco has put the focus for the men’s team on playing a more up-tempo style of game against Niagara.
“We want to come out to the court more aggressive than last weekend,” Blanco said. “Now that we know where we made mistakes, we are coming to the court with more confidence.”
Mortier feels that, overall, the women will have a solid season this year.
“I think we have a good chance,” Mortier said. “I think that if we keep pushing ourselves as a team that we’ll make each other better and we’ll play better against tough schools.”
For Irizarry, success for the team lies in confidence in each other.
“I feel that this is going to be our best season,” Irizarry said. “I have been here 3 years and I have never felt so confident with my team. I feel we are going to have a good run this season, all the way to the A10 tournament.”
The Bonnies will face Niagara at home on Saturday, with the men playing at 10 a.m and the women following at 2 p.m.
desantmj13@bonaventure.edu
