The 2011 men’s tennis team nears its end with only two more regular season games before the conference tournament. The team’s record going into today’s match against Indiana Tech is 4-6, and 2-5 in conference.
Over the weekend, Goshen played Saturday through Monday, winning against Bethel College 5-4, losing to St. Joseph’s College 3-6, and defeating visiting Defiance College 7-2.“Since the Marian match, we made a lot of line-up changes in our doubles by switching partners, and also some changes in the singles line-up which have helped us improve,” said junior Daniel Buschert. “Now that we’ve actually settled into playing with the same people, that’s helped a lot.”
Buschert said the season’s scores reflected the team’s injured players, senior Benjamin Basnet and junior Ryan Wengerd as well as tough conference match-ups like Spring Arbor University and Grace College. Basnet and Wengerd expect to compete in today’s match.
On the road, pending the weather, the Leafs will face off against the Warriors who have an overall record of 2-2. Tomorrow, the Leafs will host conference rival, Indiana Wesleyan University. The Wildcats enter the match with a 5-4 record and 4-3 in conference.
“I think looking at Indiana Weslyan’s scores, we have a shot at beating them and it would be a really big win if we did,” said Buschert. “Winning that game would give us momentum going into the tournament.”
Buschert predicts Goshen will be the seventh seed going into the tournament, with Bethel right behind in eighth.
“We have a good shot at winning the top line-up which is stronger than it’s been,” Buschert said. “[Junior] Csaba Laszlo is great at number one and then [first-year] Oleksandr Reipolski is a really good number two player. We need to beat the teams at the bottom of the line-up, which is fairly strong for us too. I think that’s where we need to play well, at the bottom and with doubles.”
The Mid-Central Conference tournament begins on Oct. 4 through Oct. 8, the location and rankings have yet to be determined.
