The Marquette men's tennis team ended the fall season in the Wilson ITA Midwest Regional this weekend by losing all four of its matches. But the team is still looking forward to the spring season with excitement and high expectations.

After all, the emphasis of the fall season has not been about wins and losses but about improvement.

"The fall's basically just one big exhibition," said sophomore Brett Binkley.

Before the ITA Regional, Binkley said the tournament would be "a good opportunity for us to get some really competitive matches under our belts."

They were able to do just that.

Even though Marquette did not win any of its matches, senior Eigis Vedrickas said he thought all three Marquette players (Binkley, Vedrickas and freshman Stephen Shao) played well.

In the first set of Vedrickas' singles match, he played sixth-seeded Matt Baccarani of Ball State to a 3-3 tie before losing the set 6-3.

"I was playing really well, I think, the first set," Vedrickas said. "And then there were a couple moments where he was able to take some opportunities and score the points that pretty much determined the first set."

Vedrickas said he struggled maintaining his concentration and intensity in the second set, which he lost 6-1.

Shao also lost a tough first set, which he led 5-4 up a break, but ended up losing 7-5. Like Vedrickas, Shao could not recover and lost big in the second set 6-2.

Binkley also played a good match, but came up short 7-6(7), 6-4 to Michigan's Peter Aarts.

With the fall season over and the spring season not starting until Jan. 25, the team enters an off-season of individual workouts and practice. Although official practices are over, players are allowed to practice with each other as much as they like, and they still have weights and conditioning five days a week, Binkley said.

Vedrickas said players will work on the particular parts of their game that they need to improve for the spring season.

"We're not where we need to be," Binkley said. "But I think we're definitely going to keep getting better."

This article was published in The Marquette Tribune on October 25, 2005.