It hasn’t been an easy year for Boston University men’s tennis, but it appears the team could be peaking at the right time.
The Terriers got a much-needed 4-3 victory over the College of the Holy Cross on Saturday, improving their record to 3-9 on the season. After trailing, 3-2, the Terriers got two big wins from sophomores Noel Moosa and Jason Vinoles.
“We made a great comeback,” said Vinoles, who rolled to a 6-1, 6-1 victory. “I had a lot of confidence in my ground strokes and I was very aggressive.”
Moosa’s match, on the other hand, was a hard-fought battle that took three sets to decide.
The Terriers gave themselves a nice cushion to begin the afternoon by winning all three of the doubles matches, something they had failed to do until Saturday. In fact, it was the first time all year the Terriers had won even two out of three.
“We’ve been struggling getting the doubles points,” said sophomore John Debbink. “But we got that easily today.”
The Terriers got off to a rough start in the singles sessions, however, dropping three of the first four matches. But the winning performances by Moosa and Vinoles proved to be the difference in the Terrier win.
“We played with more confidence,” Vinoles said. “I hope everyone can build on this win.”
Confidence and stability are two of the things that have eluded this team thus far this year. One reason for the team’s struggles has certainly been its lack of a home court since construction began at Nickerson Field.
“We have to practice at 6:30 a.m. and then drive to other courts half an hour away,” Vinoles said. “We’ve been playing under tough conditions.”
But Vinoles also believes these circumstances have made the Terriers tougher.
“Everyone is more committed than last year,” he said.
Vinoles also gives credit to BU coach Jeremy Taylor for holding the team together through this somewhat tumultuous season.
“He’s a great coach,” Vinoles said. “We couldn’t have gotten a better guy for the job.”
Like most teams, this one has not been without its injuries throughout the course of the season.
“We’ve had a few injuries, and we’ve had to shuffle the lineup,” Debbink said. “It’s been tough to deal with for [Jeremy Taylor].”
Next up for the Terriers will be a showdown with the Boston College Eagles, who, Vinoles admitted, have had great success against the Terriers recently.
“It’s our last game before the America East tourney,” Vinoles said. “Hopefully, everyone will remember what they did right on Saturday.”
After getting a win under their belts Saturday, the Terriers appear to be improving heading into the postseason. But even if they don’t find any success there, the season will not have been for nothing.
As Debbink noted, it’s been a year of “not a lot of wins, but a lot of fun.”
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
