After traveling to Tulsa, Oklahoma this past weekend to compete in the ITA All-American pre-qualifying, the Marquette men’s tennis team is back on campus earlier than they would have liked. After qualifying play, only senior Daniel Fernandez made it to the main draw.
“Our results were a little disappointing,” said men’s assistant coach Jud Shaufler. “We have parts of our game that are going to be addressed and worked on. There isn’t a point in being negative about it at this point in the year, you just have to stay positive, learn from it and move on and that’s what we are going to do.”
Fernandez won his opening match 6-3,6-4, before falling 6-2,7-6 on Saturday to Tyler Pham of UC Irvine. Juniors Nick Dykema, Mackenzie Stearns, and Kristiyan Trukov all lost their opening matchups, which disqualified them from making it to the main draw, and played in consolation matches on Saturday.
“Some of our ball striking, hitting the ball clean and timed well, didn’t seem to be there this weekend,” Shaufler said. “A lot of that is confidence, focus, and attention to detail and a lot of that wasn’t there for whatever reason. When you aren’t hitting the ball clean it affects your decision-making and confidence out on the court. It is a scenario, coming off this weekend, that has to improve and it will.”
After competing in tournaments for the past consecutive three weekends, the Golden Eagles will return to action on October 22, when they travel to South Bend, Indiana to compete in the ITA Regional tournament.
