Excitement, expectations, inconsistency, learning, flashes of brilliance — these are the attributes of a young talented team.

And these were the attributes of the Marquette men's tennis team this weekend at the Wisconsin Fall Invitational.

A strong effort on Friday propelled the Eagles to defeat host Wisconsin 2-1 in doubles. But head coach Steve Rodecap said his team did not display the same kind of effort the next day.

The young team, which features eight underclassmen and only three upperclassmen, responded well Sunday and left Rodecap with an overall good feeling about his team, and in particular his younger players.

On Sunday, Marquette found itself down 3-1 to Drake in singles, and down four sets to one in each of the remaining matches. Once again, the underclassmen handled the pressure and fought back. Both freshman Eric Fleming and sophomore Brett Binkley battled their way into tiebreaker wins and an overall 3-3 tie.

"One of the main reasons these younger guys are starting to get it is because of (junior) Eigis (Vedrickas)," Rodecap said.

"His leadership skills are starting to kick in."

Marquette played the tournament without two of their better freshman, Trent Hagan and Stephen Shao, who were injured. But injuries do not present as much of a problem this year as they may have in previous years.

"Our depth is really good right now," Rodecap said. "We have more players that can play than we've ever had before."

Marquette's next match is this weekend, when they host the Marquette Fall Invitational.

This article was published in The Marquette Tribune on October 11, 2005.