Practices at Combe Tennis Center are quiet affairs. There is little shouting. Or yelling. Or even talking of any kind. Just the rapid shuffle of feet on the hardcourt and the crisp, repetitive sound of racquet striking ball.
As Northwestern players move methodically through point after point, it is easy to see why coach Arvid Swan praises his team’s workmanlike demeanor.
“It’s a hard-working group,” Swan said. “They’re very competitive and there’s a lot of fight in our guys. I’ve enjoyed working with this group.”
The team returns more focused after last year, when NU started off strong by winning its first four duals, including a come-from-behind upset over then-No. 18 Alabama. The emotional high did not last long: the Cats came back down to Earth after dropping their next three duals.
“Our season last year started off really well, on a high note, especially with our win over Alabama,” junior Eric Spector said. “I think that we may have gotten a little ahead of ourselves. The nature of college tennis is very difficult and every match is really tough. We may have expected after a great win like that and a great start that it would come easily.”
NU’s overconfidence and an array of injuries to the team, including one to Spector that required shoulder surgery last May, conspired to ruin the Cats’ season and left them with a 10-15 dual meet record, far short of their expectations. The team dropped its last seven matches of the regular season and rarely came close to pulling out a victory.
But junior Tobias Reitz said a good finish to the year in the Big Tournament gave the team momentum that carried into 2011.
“We had the highlight of our season too early,” Reitz said. “But at the end of the year, we got a little bit of a better start when we beat Penn State in the Big Ten Tournament,” Reitz said.
The team returns largely unchanged from last season, losing only one player: team captain Alex Sanborn. Freshman Raleigh Smith is the only new face on the courts for the Cats. The main differences for the team this season come down to health, focus and experience.
“We definitely learned our lesson,” Spector said. “We had a really young team last year. We’re still pretty young this year. Especially for the young guys on the team last year, the extra year under their belt definitely helps them understand what college tennis is all about. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.”
The team, ranked No. 67 in the nation, is off to a 7-3 dual meet record so far this season, posting a 4-0 mark in their first four dual meets of the year. One of its most encouraging showings was a 3-4 loss to No. 28 Vanderbilt. Despite being unable to pull out the win, the excellent performance against a strong opponent shows the Cats have potential as the season progresses.
“With the exception of one match, I’ve thought we’ve performed relatively well,” Swan said. “Obviously we’ve been battling different injuries, that’s not really an excuse. It’s just reality. We had a chance to beat a very good Vanderbilt team this past weekend which at least shows the level we’re capable of playing. Hopefully we can continue at that level and make even greater strides.”
Like last year, health will be important to the Cats’ moving forward. Three of the team’s next five dual meets are away against top-30 opponents. NU will travel to No. 24 Oklahoma and No. 26 Notre Dame before opening its Big Ten Conference schedule at No. 27 Minnesota.
Even with the tough schedule ahead, the team still has high expectations and looks to build off of the lessons learned last year.
“We’re definitely excited and focused for the entire season this year,” Reitz said. “We won’t get too up or too down from good wins or bad losses. (We’re) trying to stay level throughout the whole season. We definitely want to finish with a positive record in the Big Ten and go into the NCAA Tournament this year, and from then on, just see where it takes us.”
