Sam Curry
currysam@grinnell.edu
Photo by John Brady
The men’s tennis team displayed their road warrior inclinations by defeating Cornell College, Buena Vista University and University of Wisconsin—La Crosse last Saturday. Even more impressively, the team won these three matches in one day in two different states. After an early morning bus ride that took the Pioneers from Grinnell to Mount Vernon, Iowa, the team authoritatively defeated Cornell College in their first Conference match of the season. Afterwards, half of the team stayed in Mount Vernon to defeat Buena Vista, while the other half traveled to Rochester, Minn. and took down UW—La Crosse. Grinnell’s team specializes in these split-squad matches that expand their player pool and test the team’s depth and resolve.
“Coach [Andy Hamilton ’85] makes sure to schedule just as many split-squad matches as main squad matches, and they both contribute our fantastic record that we have with 30 plus wins each year,” said Tracy Johnson ’16.
While team cohesion played a large role in the clean sweep over the weekend, the victories also required some outstanding individual performances. One of those performances came from Caleb Kumar ’16, who defeated Buena Vista’s No. 1 singles player. According to Kumar, the match seemed like a lost cause at the beginning because of his opponent’s overwhelming serve.
“He had the best serve I had ever played and it kind of felt like I couldn’t win the match. I lost the first set 4–6, I was down 1–4 in the second set and I was [thinking] ‘I just want to make this match close, I don’t want to get blown out,’” Kumar said.
It was only after figuring out how to return the serve that Kumar started to believe that he could win.
“I guess I finally started believing and thinking ‘maybe, maybe’, and I kind of cruised from that point on,” Kumar said.
One of the biggest challenges of playing three matches in two locations is adjusting to different court surfaces at each school, as different surfaces can make for faster or slower play.
“Playing at Cornell helped us ultimately because … when we got to Minnesota we were used to the quicker surface,” Hamilton said.
Although the packed schedule allows Grinnell the chance the pick up more victories and experience, there was one downside, as the seniors who traveled to play UW—La Crosse arrived back in Grinnell too late to attend 100 Days. Johnson, however, accepts the occasional cuts into social time as part of being on the team and he knows that Hamilton works to give them the best experience possible.
“Coach knows that he’s taking away our weekends, and he speeds down the highway as fast as he possibly can, sometimes at our own risk, because he wants us to have the real, traditional college experience,” Johnson said.
Kumar, while having the opportunity to attend 100 Days, is able to see the bright side for his teammates who could not.
“It was sad, but also there is delayed gratification. They have to miss 100 Days, but they don’t have to experience 100 Days and they don’t have to remember 100 Days,” Kumar said.
Despite missing the event, the men’s tennis team will be in town for Mary B. James with two matches in Grinnell on Saturday. At 9:30 a.m., the men will host Grand View College at 9:30 a.m. and then Hastings College at 5 p.m.
