By Pete Ruden
The whole fall season has been leading up to this for the Iowa men’s tennis team.
The Hawkeyes will compete at the Big Ten Singles and Doubles Championships this weekend in Madison, Wisconsin, today through Nov. 7.
This will be the first time the entire team will travel to a tournament and play together, meaning junior Lefteris Theodorou will compete for the first time this season.
Theodorou had wrist surgery early in the year, and after a long break from being able to play other teams on the court, he will finally get his chance.
“I want to see a good, competitive attitude from him,” head coach Ross Wilson said. “It’s his first tournament since July. He’s been practicing a lot over the last couple weeks. He’s hitting the ball great, moving great. Win or lose, I want to see him go out, and play as hard as he can play, and just see what happens.”
This is also the perfect time for Theodorou to return to the Hawkeye lineup.
The Big Tens are arguably the biggest tournament of the fall season, so Wilson wants his team to peak.
This weekend in Madison, Iowa will get a sneak preview of the teams and players they will face throughout the spring season.
While it’s a chance to get a great scouting report, it’s also a good measuring stick to see how the Hawkeyes stack up against conference foes.
“I would say it’s a really big tournament because it’s our conference,” junior Josh Silverstein said. “Every single player who’s playing this tournament is going to be on the teams that we play against during season when we enter our conference. Not only is it a good preview, but it’s just great competition.
“Winning this tournament or going far in this tournament means a lot, and it shows other teams and other coaches that you’re a serious player and you’re a threat.”
With its being the last tournament of the fall, this is the time to gain confidence. After this weekend, there will be a two-month break until the Hawkeyes compete again, meaning the momentum from a big win now can carry over into the spring.
Iowa assistant coach Matt Hagan experienced that when he was a senior on the team.
He finished the fall off on a high note, being the No. 1 player on the team as well as being ranked. When the spring season came around, he knew that he could do well at the No. 1 position in the Big Ten.
Hagan also believes that anyone on the team can carry over the same confidence he had in the final year of his playing days.
“If you get a couple good wins in the fall, then I think it’s just kind of a belief that it gives you motivation to keep working hard over the next two months in the break between the fall and the spring,” he said. “I think if you finish that fall off strong, then it just gives you that motivation and kind of belief that you can have a really good year and you can play with all the players in the Big Ten.”
