Ripon College Days

Media Credit: Archive photo Ace. Sophomore Ben Sweeney returns a lob during practice. This season Sweeney and first year Dan Weiler are Ripon's number two doubles team, looking to bring some wins to Red Hawk tennis. [Click to enlarge]

The men's tennis team holds a lot of potential for the upcoming season, and they showed it at their first conference meet against Lake Forest Feb. 12.

Their biggest asset in the early season is their personnel. They returned most of their players from last year. They also picked up two solid first years in Dan Weiler and Dan Rodriguez.

"Our depth is one of our greatest assets this year. In years past we haven't had this kind of depth. This year there is no drop off from numbers one through six on this team," sophomore Ben Sweeney says.

"Our goal is to win the conference title this year," Sweeney says. "We have to get past Grinnell if we want to win it."

The Hawks need to go through Grinnell if they want to get to nationals as well.

The Hawks understand if they're going to be successful this season there are improvements that need to be made.

"We need to execute shots and buy into coach's philosophy if we want to reach our goals this season," Sweeney says.

"I think we need to work on consistency, making shots over and over," says sophomore Dave Czarnecki. "Patience is another key to being successful, we need to let our opponents beat themselves."

But, the Hawks feel comfortable where they are right now, too.

"We just started, and it's kind of early in the season, but we've improved from the first practice even," said Czarnecki.

He adds, "I think we have a good chance at the conference title, but if we're going to beat Grinnell, we've got to improve significantly."

Sophomore Ryan Manis adds doubles play to the list of needed improvements.

"We need to have good doubles teamwork to win matches," Czarnecki agrees.

Czarnecki knows all about winning in doubles play as one half of the number one doubles team for Ripon. He and his partner, senior Paul VandenBoogaard won the Ripon Doubles Invitational Feb. 11.

The day after winning the Doubles Invitational, the doubles team of Czarnecki and VandenBoogaard beat the Lake Forest number one doubles team. The number two doubles team of Sweeney and Weiler also won.

The two doubles victories for the Hawks ended up being the deciding factor in their 4 to 3 win over the Foresters.

The Hawks are now 1-0 in conference and 1-2 overall after their non-conference losses to UW-La Crosse and Michigan Tech.

The Hawks' next meet is Feb. 26 against Concordia University and Elmhurst College.

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