Northwestern men’s tennis team swung into the season on Feb. 4 with a pair of sweeps in a tournament hosted by Cornell College.
During this tournament, the team beat out two other NCAA teams: Cornell and Wisconsin Lutheran. At the end of the day, the Raiders had a 9-0 win over both competing schools.
NW junior, Jack Roisum, said, “that was a good confidence boost for our guys.”
Last year, when the NW men’s tennis team travelled to Mount Vernon at the start of the spring season, they defeated Cornell in all six singles matches. For two years in a row, the team kicked off the season with decisive wins at the first tournament.
Up next, the team will be heading to Yankton, SD on February 16, to play against Mount Marty, initiating the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) play for the season.
Roisum said, “The team is getting better and better each day, and we’re looking a lot stronger this year.”
The team kicked off the new season strong – this vast improvement should not be a shock to tennis meet attendants. NW junior, Noah Roisum said, “We really benefit from some strong competition in practice which makes the transition to matches a lot smoother and prepares us better.”
“I think this has the potential to be our best season yet. The team is definitely back in its groove from the fall,” Roisum said. “We’ll be looking to continue to improve as the season goes on and really hit our stride down the stretch in March and April.”
April is also when the team will have the ability to host matches at home, given that the weather will be warm enough to use the new outdoor facilities. NW doesn’t currently have the capacity to host indoor competitions.
“Once the weather gets nice outside, we’ll host a few meets in April here on our new courts on campus,” Roisum said.
The tennis team is warming up during the winter to take on opponents during the spring season.