By Matt Thacker
The University of Louisville men’s tennis team began its 2006 campaign with a 5-2 win over Northwestern on Friday night at the Bass-Rudd Tennis Center.
The tennis team also honored its alumni during the match. Assistant Coach Mark Beckham, who played for U of L from 1988-1992, and former All-American Michael Mather were inducted into the alumni Best of the Best.
Mather played from 1996-1998 and became U of L’s only All-American tennis player. He remarked about how much the tennis program has grown since he graduated.
”It’s nice to see this crowd here. When I played, there were maybe five people watching and four of them were parents,” he joked.
The Cardinals (1-0) took all three doubles matches and four of six singles matches, overwhelming the younger visiting team.
”This isn’t just a win. [Northwestern] is a team that went to the NCAAs last year,” Head Coach Rex Ecarma said. “It’s the quality of the win that impresses me.”
Northwestern (1-1) played two freshmen and a sophomore, while the Cards relied on their experience to tame the Wildcats.
”I really love our seniors,” Ecarma said.
U of L’s duo of Jakob Gustafsson and Jeremy Clark defeated Northwestern’s Alexey Evstratenkov and Matt Christian 8-4 for the Cards’ easiest doubles victory of the night.
Northwestern’s Willy Lock tested junior Slavko Radman early, but Radman pulled out a 7-6 victory in the first set and outlasted Lock 6-3 in the second set.
Senior Jhonny Berrido had the most impressive victory of the night, beating Evstratenkov 6-0, 6-1 on the sixth court.
”Last year, I played most of the time injured,” Berrido said. “I’m trying to prove that I can play at a high level.”
Damar Johnson, playing on the first court, struggled in the first set losing 6-1 and getting behind early in the second, but he came back and evened up the second set before falling in the tiebreak.
”Unfortunately, Damar dug himself a pretty deep hole and wasn’t able to get out of it,” Ecarma said.
The Cardinals won’t have much time to celebrate as they have a double-header Saturday against Morehead State at 2 p.m. and Southern Illinois at 6 p.m. Both matches will be played at the Bass-Rudd Tennis Center. Ecarma said his goal is to make it farther than last year’s team to the NCAA tournament’s Sweet 16.
The Cardinals were ranked 32nd in the nation. At the end of last season, Radko and Johnson were both ranked in the top 25 regionally, as were the duo of Clark and Gustafsson. Still, the Cards are realistic moving into a tough Big East conference.
”It’s a nice honor for last year’s team, but we’ve been coaching long enough to not put too much into the ranking,” Beckham said.
