Written and Media by Ransom Cochrane.
This past weekend, the Greenville Men’s Tennis Team took on their first home match of the spring season. They used their talents and skills to compete against Franklin College and Illinois College. Greenville came out victorious and beat Franklin College 9-0 and Illinois College 8-1. All athletes played to their best abilities and it definitely showed. Starting off with a home win seems near-glorious and helps the student-athletes prepare for their next matches. The athletes have the opportunity to work on their weaknesses before going into the matches held during Spring Break. A few of the athletes got to share their insights and what they got from this past match.
Captain Nate Wieland felt their performance as a team the past two matches was equally rewarding and promising. He thought it was nice to see the fruit of their labor by the team’s fantastic wins in doubles. The work transferred over into dominating singles matches with players getting wins at every spot over the two matches. The general state of the team excites Wieland for Spring Break in Hilton Head as well, where they’ll be playing five tough matches in five days. “Austin Burkhart has been playing like the D3 tennis equivalent of Isaiah Thomas. For those who don’t know basketball, that was a short joke,” said Wieland.
Cecil Burkhart thought the match this previous Saturday was a great day for GU tennis. They came into Saturday undefeated and it would remain that way at the end of the day. As a team, they played very well up and down the lineup. In both of the matches, GU was in control. Everyone was playing some spectacular tennis. Burkhart felt that the team was hitting their stride and with their trip to Hilton Head, South Carolina, just a few days away, they are all ready for the challenges that will coincide with the trip. As a team, Burkhart believes that they are poised to do some damage this season.
When asked to share thoughts about Saturday’s matches, Brock Renshaw said, “We won all our doubles matches and all our singles matches besides Nate, who played a great match against Illinois College but fell short by only two or three points in a tiebreaker. That was one of the best matches I have seen since being a college tennis player and I believe that most of my teammates would agree. There was a lot of energy and encouragement throughout the whole day by our fans, family, and friends. I hope we can generate that same intensity and competitiveness in our next home match.”
Finally, Daniel Pieplow closed with the following comments, “These matches were a great preparation for our week down in Hilton Head over Spring Break. Overall, we played very well as a team, especially against Illinois College. The highlight of the day was definitely our #3 doubles team of Brock Renshaw and Jeremiah Brannon fighting back from down 4-6 and saving match points to win the match 9-7!”
As any team would be, the GU Men’s Tennis squad was ecstatic about being undefeated going into a big matchup during Spring Break. The athletes will do everything they can to keep their undefeated record. Check back in late March to see the men’s and women’s results from the Hilton Head trip!
