The old adage, 'You can never go home again,' has new meaning for the men's tennis team as it kicks off its season-ending road trip in earnest next week at the Boise State Invitational.
The team will play its remaining six regular-season matches away from Marquette's Helfaer Tennis Stadium, and the road has not been kind to the Golden Eagles. They are 0-6 away from home this spring, including a 6-1 defeat at the hands of Wisconsin last week.
"I promise you we'll win a match on the road at some point," head coach Steve Rodecap said with a laugh.
The Golden Eagles' struggles away from Marquette are due mostly to the strength of the teams they have faced in their travels, according to assistant coach Armando Espinosa.
"Usually when you do (the) schedule, you're going to have teams that are better than you that want you to come over (to their home), because they're not going to come over (to your home)," he said.
The Golden Eagles lost at Michigan State — currently ranked No. 52 in the nation — Jan. 22 and at No. 16 Notre Dame Feb. 13.
Alabama-Birmingham, which was ranked No. 75 as late as Feb. 15, defeated Marquette in the opening round of the Conference USA shootout.
Marquette also starts three freshmen in singles and boasts only one senior, Troy Delmege. Normally, a team's youthfulness accounts for struggles on the road, but Rodecap said that is not the case this season.
"If you break down where we get the majority of our wins from, I would say our young guys do a pretty good job, probably as good as anyone else does," he said.
Inconsistency has plagued Marquette on the road all season. No player on the team has a winning singles record away from home; freshman Pete Van Lieshout is 3-3, but no one else has recorded more than one road victory in singles.
"I just don't think we've put it all together at one time, certain people will play well, but we need to step up to win those big matches," freshman Greg Sirotek said.
Rodecap and Espinosa both discounted the notion that there is a big difference between playing at home and playing the road.
"It's not like tennis brings a big crowd," Espinosa said. "If tennis brought a big crowd, then there would be a difference playing home and away."
Espinosa also said that the different court surfaces at other locations make a difference but noted that any collegiate tennis player should be used to playing on many different surfaces.
Marquette will travel next week to Boise, Idaho for the Boise State Invitational. The first round match occurs Wednesday against No. 66 Nebraska.
Nebraska defeated the Golden Eagles, 5-2, last season and participated in last fall's Marquette-hosted Milwaukee Tennis Classic.
This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on Mar. 17 2005.