By Pete Ruden
For the first time all season, the Iowa men’s tennis team will travel together to a major tournament, the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Regionals in Stillwater, Oklahoma from Oct. 20 through Oct. 24.Before this tournament, the Hawkeyes had only been sending two or three players to compete each week, but now that the whole team is going, it will be a different experience.
“This is the first time we’ve traveled [with] the whole team, so it will be a nice atmosphere,” head coach Ross Wilson said. “When guys are playing their matches, they’ll have other guys cheering and supporting them. They’re going to actually play for the first time in front of their teammates, which I think is always an interesting experience, and to see how they compete.”
The lone player not going to the tournament for the Hawkeyes is junior Lefteris Theodorou. The native of Athens, Greece recently had surgery on his wrist, so he is unable to compete at tournaments.
After finishing last season with a 19-13 record in singles action, Theodorou’s presence on the court will be missed. However, Wilson said Theodorou is now doing great, so it looks like he will make a return to the court in the near future.
“Unfortunately, he had surgery on his wrist and he’s not able to hit a backhand right now,” Wilson said. “But he’s actually doing great. He’s got the cast off [and] he’s able to practice.”
At the ITA Regionals, Iowa will be facing teams they usually wouldn’t play. As opposed to just playing Big Ten opponents, they will be playing schools in the region, which ranges from Minnesota to Arkansas and includes teams in the Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC.
That means a lot of ranked teams and some of the best in the country will be making an appearance, giving the Hawkeyes a chance to make a statement.
“I’m excited for the competition. There’s going to be so many great players there,” junior Josh Silverstein said. “I’m excited to watch my teammates to compete and for them to support me as I compete also, and to see how good we’ve gotten.”
This is also an opportunity for Iowa to show how close the team is and how good its team chemistry is. With everyone competing and watching, players will push their teammates to the max and have their back through everything that happens.
It will be freshman Jason Kerst’s first time traveling with the whole team to a tournament. He knows the support the team has for each other can help the athletes make deep runs into the tournament, and that’s what he’s hoping for.
“To have this where we’re all kind of going together and it will be our first, really, experience of the 2016-17 season all travelling together,” Kerst said. “It’s a really good time for us all to push each other, and we’ll be there to support one another and hopefully we can all make deep runs.”
Just two weeks after this big tournament, Iowa will have another big tournament, as they will travel to Madison, Wisconsin to compete in the Big Ten Singles and Doubles Championships.
Wilson has said that he wants his team to peak at these two tournaments, as they are two of the biggest during the fall season.
No matter how the ITA Regionals go for the Hawkeyes, they will find ways to improve prior to the Big Tens, so they can have success.
“Every tournament prepares you for the next one. The more matches you play, the more you’re going to improve,” Silverstein said. “Hopefully we can learn after this tournament and fix whatever mistakes we have to make, and get better prepared for the Big Tens.”