The Boston University men’s tennis team opened its season this past weekend with the University of Connecticut Invitational in Storrs, Conn. BU turned in positive performances from the second-flight doubles duo of senior Jeff Chudacoff and freshman Josh Friedman, who captured the Flight-B doubles championship.
The Terriers went 4-6 during the three-day tournament, which showcased eight teams besides BU: UConn, Bryant University, Bucknell University, Sacred Heart University, Quinnipiac University, College of the Holy Cross, Fairfield University and University of Hartford.’
The No. 2 doubles team’s victory is a very good sign for BU, who struggled with doubles play last season. Chudacoff and Friedman beat Quinnipiac’s John Hughes and Charles Feldman 8-4, and Bucknell’s Kelly Morque and Josh Katten 8-5, before defeating Bryant’s Kevin Gradiner and Thomas Nowak in the final by an 8-5 margin.
‘Chudacoff and Friedman went out there and won it all,’ BU coach Rick Edelmann said. ‘Our doubles play was our Achilles’ heel last year. This weekend, it was obviously much improved. It’s early in the year so with doubles you try to get a little bit of synergy on and for whatever reason, it was clicking. They seemed to jell earlier than we thought they would.’
Chudacoff and Friedman seem like an unlikely pair, as one is a senior co-captain and the other is a freshman. Edelmann, however, says their personalities fit together very well for an on-the-court partnership.
‘You look at the team as a whole and try to match up personalities and styles of play,’ Edelmann said. ‘When I looked at the overall picture, they seemed like they would be a good fit. Sometimes what you think should be two tremendous players together, isn’t, but luckily this one worked out.’
‘ The Terriers won one match besides Chudacoff and Friedman’s three victories. Sophomore Alex Green downed Tim Regan of Holy Cross in two sets, 6-2, 6-2, before losing the semi-final match to Quinnipiac’s Feldman, 6-2, 7-5.
The Terriers showed much room for improvement in their first tournament of the year. The team needs to improve their serve returns and focus more on singles play during practice, Edelmann said.
‘Until you actually go out there and put the teams on the court, it’s hard to see what is going to happen,’ Edelmann said. ‘I think you are always experimenting at this time of year and I want to see how certain players respond from this weekend and move on.’
The team has the skills it needs to win, but has yet to polish those skills well enough to get the results they want. The No. 3 doubles team was returning serves well early on, but, ‘it wasn’t pretty,’ Edelmann said.
‘A lot of [our issues] in singles are because of a lack of match play,’ Edelmann said. ‘We have not had as much match play this season as we have had in the past, so I do not think the guys were as mentally prepared as they could have been. A lot of that falls back on me, and so that is something that we will work on and improve on as the season continues.’
The Terriers are also a young team who play five freshmen. Edelmann says he is hoping to see the freshmen mature a little bit, but he is also excited to see how the upperclassmen will lead this team.
‘We have a young team so it will be interesting to see how those guys perform as they mature,’ Edelmann said. ‘We are looking to have a very successful season.’
