Freshman Carter Labarthe is one of the many experienced tennis players on the club men’s tennis team. He lettered four years in tennis in high school and was approached by at least two Division III schools to play varsity tennis.
But he was unenthusiastic about choosing to play tennis for four years at a small school over earning a degree.
“Everyone who is serious on the club team was serious at some point before college,” Labarthe said. “I wanted to come to a school with a good academic reputation, which outweighed the benefits of playing tennis at a small school.”
While most of the club tennis players have impressive accolades like Labarthe, many do not stand a chance against the elite varsity tennis players. But as of this year, that has changed.
For the first time in the team’s history, a former player, junior Philip Kafka, was promoted to the varsity team earlier this year. For members of the club team, the dream of playing Division I is still a possibility.
“It shows that there are people at Northwestern that don’t come in playing or being recruited for varsity that still have an extreme amount of talent, especially in the realm of tennis,” freshman Brandon Zaharoff said.
The competition to get on the club team is demanding enough, let alone getting promoted to the varsity squad.
Over 90 players tried out for the team in the fall – its largest turnout ever. The team took 30 players and from those selected, 12 players were chosen for the travel squad. The exclusive travel team competes in the tournaments outside of NU, including regional and national tournaments.
According to team president Nick Shultz, this year’s team is much more competitive now than three years ago, because of its new faces.
“This year we have stepped up the competition,” Shultz said. “We are a lot better than in years past. We’ve got a group of really good freshmen come in this year who have shown a commitment to the team.”
The freshman class is one of the main reasons why this year’s team has done so well. Six of the 12 on the travel team are freshmen. Of the seven players the team sent to the USTA Midwest Campus Championship in February and the USTA National Campus Championship in April, four were freshmen.
The Wildcats finished second in the regional tournament this year, qualifying for the national tournament for the first time in team history. The team’s sudden success has surprised even the most experienced players on the team.
Even without a player of Kafka’s value, the team still capped off one of its best seasons, based on their performance at the nationals tournament. The team is confident their program will continue to potentially field more varsity-caliber players following Kafka’s impressive promotion.
“The club tennis team is a great jumping off point for athletes,” Shultz said. “A lot of our guys who don’t want to make the time commitment for varsity will play club. But we have a couple of guys who can definitely make the varsity team. It’s surprising that the coach took this long to look at (club) players for the varsity team.”
