You may have never seen tennis on the “The O.C.” when it was on TV, but that doesn’t mean they don’t play it out in sunny SoCal.
The Boston University men’s tennis team returned Sunday from a week of training and stiff competition in the warm weather of southern California, playing four matches intended to strengthen the team and give experience to some of the younger athletes.
After a week-long schedule against top opponents, the team came back to BU with a great deal of confidence in its ability, even though it went winless in all four bouts, said BU coach Rocky Jarvis. A solid week of practice and training against top-tier competition on the West Coast hopefully means the Terriers’ upcoming opponents will be facing a sharper, more focused squad of BU athletes in the second half of the season.
“It was a very intense week of training and match play,” Jarvis said. “We played them all pretty tough and I have to say that I was pleased. I’m sure the training and the match toughness will help us in the future.”
While the four losses bumped the Terriers (6-8) below the .500 mark, they were not matches team was expected to win against squads who have recruited players worldwide.
“About three quarters of the people we played against were international players,” Jarvis said. “In the rest of the world, tennis is the number two sport, right behind soccer, so they’ve all trained on a much different level than our guys. I know the level of play out here and for us to win these matches we would need a lot of big scholarship guys.”
The week began on Monday, with an 8-1 loss to Vanguard University. The Terriers were back on the courts Tuesday, as they fell again, this time a 7-0 shutout at Point Loma Nazarene University. After back-to-back losses, it would have been easy for the team to lose focus on its goals, but the Terriers kept up their effort.
“The trip is intended as a training trip,” Jarvis said. “Every one of the guys that we brought out here this week got a lot of training in. Everybody on the squad got to play in at least four matches.”
Jarvis cites the tight matches as evidence the team played up to the high level of its competition, even though some of the scores didn’t reflect that.
“Most of the guys played close all week,” Jarvis said. “[Senior] Barrett [Wolf] never got blown out, even though he was playing against the best player that every one of these teams had.”
BU got back into action Thursday with a loss (6-1) at the University of California-San Diego. Sophomore Miron Nissim (7-6, 6-4) had the lone victory for the Terriers in his singles match. The team closed out its Spring Break schedule on Saturday with another shutout loss, 7-0, this time against the University of San Diego. Jarvis was pleased to discover a strong new doubles tandem in freshman Jeff Chudacoff and junior Phil DeMeo.
“Jeff and Phil are really the best classic doubles specialists on the team,” Jarvis said. “I’m going to insert them into the lineup in the future. I really think we found a new doubles team.”
A week of outdoor competition is certainly a change for the Terriers, who do not begin playing outdoors until the weather warms up in a few more weeks. Both the style of play and the courts in southern California were unusual for BU.
“In California they tend to play a very fast, powerful brand of tennis,” Jarvis said. “The guys we were playing against had hard serves in the 120 [miles per hour] to 130 range. All of those courts were a fast, smooth surface which is different from what we’re used to. I think the guys will adjust well when we get back.”
The Terriers will hope to use their intense week of training to boost their play in the future. Moving into the stretch run of the season, the team is in good position to put together a strong finish.
“We’ve got a few matches coming up that could go either way,” Jarvis said. “They put all the work in and they did everything right. Now all it comes down to is what they do with it.”