For the men’s tennis team, a long season was cut mercifully short. The women, however, hope to ride into post-season glory.

The men’s team finished 6-11 after dropping the season’s first five matches, while the women are preparing for Regionals on May 14 after winning four in a row and seven of the last eight matches with a total record of 12-4.

The men played a tough Division-III schedule and also had to deal with a score of injuries to key players like freshman Todd Berry and Chase Rapp and seniors Leland Buttle and Giovanni Villicana.

But even with these injuries, the Panthers didn’t expect to be swept from their matches 9-0 seven times and crushed 8-1 three more times.

The history of Chapman’s men’s tennis team has been a bleak one. Last year the men’s team logged a 6-11 and the year before ended 5-9. You have to go back to 2005 for the last winning season, one of only four since Chapman made the move to Division-III in 1994.

Freshman Dylan Tevlin and junior Christian Isip alternated as the number one and two singles players this year.

“You get to play the best players in that spot,” Tevlin said. “It wasn’t fun all the time, but you keep plugging away. It makes the wins that much more fun.”

All the team can look toward is next year. A new group of freshmen have expressed interest in the team, said Head Coach Will Marino.

“This wasn’t a full team this year,” Marino said, citing the injuries, as well as some intangibles. “A lot of guys were down on themselves, they lost confidence.”

Lack of confidence was a big part of the men’s team not performing the way they wanted, but as Tevlin said, sometimes other teams are just better.

On the other side of the court, the women’s team had confidence to spare, climbing the national rankings throughout the season.

“To go from [No.] 23 to [No.] 12 is amazing. A lot of hard work has paid off,” said sophomore Cassady Sirois. “Last year we were shakier, we didn’t think we were as good as the top teams.”

That changed this year when the team upset then No. 11 Carnegie Mellon at home. In 2008 and 2009, the team finished 12-7 and 10-7 respectively, but couldn’t put the pieces together to win it all.

The assurance the team had this year was further helped by squeaking out a win over Redlands.

It was the first win against the school in 10 years, and the team is likely to see the Bulldogs again in Regional play. This allowed the women to walk with a little swagger.

“We beat Redlands at home, we can easily beat them for sure,” Sirois said. “Well, it won’t be easy. But we did it already this season.”

Junior Liz Lewis, the unofficial leader of the team, was optimistic about the team’s chances on a big stage, even after dropping her 24-game winning streak at the 110th Ojai Valley Tennis Tournament. She was also pleasantly surprised with the team’s performance during the season.

“We’ve always had potential [in the past few seasons], but didn’t show it,” Lewis said. “Now we are proving ourselves.”

The team learns the Regional seedings on May 10.


Contact this reporter: ryan.murray@thepantheronline.com