By Andrew Hornback
Last Tuesday, University of Louisville men’s head tennis coach Rex Ecarma conducted a meeting with his players before heading to the Florida Golf Coast Shootout to begin the Spring season.
After Ecarma reiterated his teams successes from the Fall, his focus was on making sure each player understood the difference between the way matches would be played in the Spring.
“We worked hard for nine months last season, and it was all gone in one day against South Florida. Because we weren’t holding each other accountable. Each player on this team has a responsibility and their teammates need to call them out if they aren’t doing what’s best for the team”, Ecarma said.
While the Fall semester consisted of multiple invitational events that were typically double elimination style tournaments, the Spring will consist of match play versus specific opponents which will affect the Cards seeding in the Big East tournament.
“In the Spring, you’re playing more for your team. It isn’t about the individual success or statistics anymore. Everything you do affects your teammates”, sophomore Austen Childs said when asked by Ecarma to tell the freshmen what he had learned last year.
Ecarma concluded the meeting by stating how important building momentum at the Florida Gulf Coast Shootout would be to his team.
“We haven’t hit outdoors in three months. We’re going to get to see how mentally tough these guys are”, Ecarma said.
The team responded to Ecarma’s message over the weekend by dominating the event. On the first day, they produced seven singles wins and two doubles wins. The freshmen, who Ecarma said would be integral to the success of the team, won three of their four singles matches, but the only all freshmen doubles team, consisting of Robert Hall and Adam Donaldson, fell 4-8 versus Indiana’s Peter Antons and Maxime Arnaugaud.
The next day saw four singles and seven doubles victories. Freshman Sumit Gupta and sophomore Viktor Maksimcuk, who struggled together playing doubles on the first day, won both of their matches together. Hall and Donaldson also made adjustments from day one and recorded two doubles victories.
On the final day of the event, the Cards recorded nine singles victories led by sophomore Viktor Maksimcuk’s pair of victories over Will Kendall and Santiago Gruter, both of Indiana University. Sophomore Alejandro Calligari, who is from Florida and had been home hitting outdoors over Christmas break was the player Ecarma expected to be the most prepared of any player on his team. Calligari finished with one singles and three doubles victories.
The Cards will play their first dual match of the season on January 16th at the Bass Rudd Tennis Center, hosting Duquesne and Murray State.
