Hollywood loves producing with movies in which a team faces adversity, doesn’t quite come out on top, but is ecstatic about its effort regardless. That situation is similar to the one that Northwestern’s sitting in after the Big Ten Singles Championships this past weekend.
Three of the Wildcats competed at the tournament: freshman Peter Rispoli, senior Juan Gomez and sophomore Alex Sanborn.
On Saturday, Rispoli defeated Ryan Gormley of Penn State but fell in the next round against Wisconsin’s Nolan Polley, 6-3, 6-3. Gomez lost in the first round to Iowa’s Gentry Kaegi, 6-1, 7-5.
After losing in qualifying, Sanborn won his first match in the consolation bracket against Jeremy Sonkin, the No. 3 seed from Wisconsin. Sanborn swept him in the first set, 6-0, and won 7-5 in the second.
Sanborn advanced one more round Sunday after besting Iowa’s Tommy McGeorge, 7-6 (7-2), 6-1, but then he suffered a loss to Iowa’s Reinoud Haal, 5-7, 6-3, 1-0 (7-4).
Though the team consists of a six-man roster, three of them being freshmen, and new head and assistant coaches, the Cats are pleased with the progress they have made so far.
“I think we saw a lot of progress (this fall),” first-year head coach Arvid Swan said. “I’m happy with the way that several of the guys have improved. … This past weekend we had three guys I thought played some pretty good tennis.”
None of the Cats made it to the final rounds of the tournament this weekend, but Swan said he was impressed with the technical changes. He highlighted Rispoli’s serve and Sanborn’s backhand as improvements the team has made. Swan said these technical changes take time to develop, but they’re important for the players to learn.
Swan said that he is happy with the team’s conditioning as well. He said the team is now able to be much more physical than they were in the beginning of the season.
Rispoli, one of the freshmen, has appreciated the conditioning that Swan has imposed and noticed the improvement in his performance as a result.
“I think a major improvement overall for the whole team is fitness,” Rispoli said. “(Fitness) has been stressed a lot in our program, which translates well on the court. As the match goes longer, we have more and more advantages over our competitors.”
Newly appointed team captain Alex Sanborn was happy with his own performance as well as the team’s from this weekend. Sanborn said he started a little slow, but picked it up when he played against Wisconsin’s Sonkin.
Sanborn was not completely satisfied with his game, though, as there are certain skills he admits he needs to polish for the winter.
“I served well this weekend, but it can still get better,” Sanborn said. “I’m a small guy so I need to focus on that. (I need to) use my legs a lot more getting up into my serve (and) a little more wrist snap to get more power.”
Not only is the team is working on the technical aspects of tennis, the intangible aspect of inexperience is present as well. With freshmen making up half of the roster and the captain being a sophomore, experience is something that NU will need to pick up quickly when the winter rolls around.
Rispoli was the only freshman to participate in the Championships this weekend, and he said the situation they are in right now is not too bad. Rispoli said the young team can be good because it’s being led by helpful upperclassmen.
In addition to the older members helping the team with the technical side of tennis, they have been helping out in other ways.
“(Alex) is a great guy always. He’s helped us out whether it’s staying at his house before school started or driving us everywhere,” Rispoli said. “You know, he has the only car on the team, so he’s pretty (important).”
Reach Franklin Kao at [email protected].
