After claiming back-to-back victories in their opening matches of the season against Milwaukee School of Engineering University (MSOE) and Southwestern Illinois University, the Augustana men’s tennis team has dropped three in a row as they look to regain their footing and prepare for conference play.
Coming off a three-way tie for first place in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) in the 2024-25 season, the Vikings have a chance to run away with conference this year. The start of the season was a great way for them to see where they stood on that prediction.
Even with multiple contributing seniors graduating, the Vikings came in and dominated their opening matchups, joining Carthage as the only other team in the CCIW to win both of their first two matchups.
Preparing for a long season filled with expectations, Augustana’s focus shifted to its next matchup against second-ranked University of Chicago, a meeting that junior Pedro Nunes felt was necessary to see how well-prepared the Vikings were for their tough season ahead.
“I think it was a great practice match,” Nunes said. “It’s always good to see how we play against one of the top teams in the nation because it’s good to see how our game works against strong opponents. If we only have matchups against teams who are not as competitive, we get caught by surprise when we play against other teams during conference games.”
The University of Chicago would prove to be the tough competition they were looking for as the Vikings would fall to the Maroons, 7-0. Still, the Vikings are not looking for wins this early in the season, instead focusing on what the end of the season could promise for them.
Their next challenge would have them travelling for the first time in the spring season to take on the Kalamazoo Hornets the following day. After earning a 1-0 lead following doubles action, the Vikings would drop all their remaining matchups to the Hornets, losing 6-1.
Despite ultimately losing, Vikings’ sophomore Grant Meyers feels he and his team have found their stride early on in these contests, and he attributes a lot of their success to their ability to get going from the first serve.
“We’ve done a pretty good job getting off to good starts, especially against Kalamazoo,” Meyers said. “We hadn’t won doubles against them in years. It’s the same thing with MSOE. We started off really strong. We had some struggles getting into it, but then we were able to rally and finish really strong. That’s where we’ve really been able to succeed.”
The Vikings then continued their road trip to take on the Coe College Kohawks, whom they had seen in the fall for an exhibition match. After losing their first game of the spring season to Carthage College, the Kohawks rattled off six-straight victories ahead of their date with the Vikings.
Augustana would come up short in all of their doubles matches, forfeiting a point to Coe. Unfortunately for them, the singles matches wouldn’t prove to be much more successful, with junior Aingeru Garcia Acebo being the lone victor for the Vikings, leading to another 6-1 loss.
With still much of the season left, the Vikings will have plenty of time to gain traction ahead of CCIW play. Even with the added pressure of their conference victory and an ITA national poll ranking of 45th, Garcia Acebo trusts that the Vikings can deliver.
“I want to say I don’t see the pressure on the team,” Garcia Acebo said. “Everyone involved with our team expects us to play at a great level this year, and I feel that we can do that. We have to work a little bit on it, but I really feel that if someone puts pressure on us, we’ll deliver.”
The Vikings will stay on the road and take on Central College on March 14, before travelling to Hilton Head Island, S.C., for their spring break matches.
