The Gustavus Men’s Tennis team opened their MIAC Conference schedule with five straight victories, including one against rival Carleton last weekend.

The Men’s Tennis team posted a great fall record. At the Drake invitational in Iowa, it went 6-5 in doubles and 4-7 in singles. It also hosted the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s Midwest Regional Tournament October 2-6,2009. Following the fall season, the team was on its own. Coach Tommy Valentini was not allowed to participate in off-season training, so the men had to make sure they worked hard to stick to their goals.

“We practiced with each other on our own time as much as our school requirements would allow us,” Sophomore Patrick Clark said. “We also held matches scheduled between us to work on our ability to compete. Lastly, we had a weight training program designed by us that was very helpful in improving our fitness.”

The team is also very young this year. The roster consists of seven first-years, seven sophomores, one junior and only two seniors. While there are plenty of talented athletes on the team, they are young and know they need to form a great bond to be a great team.

“After fall, our goals were to work on continuing to build team camaraderie seeing that we were such a young group,” Clark said.

Their goals were to mainly improve. They worked as much as possible in the off season to push themselves and develop a strong up-and-coming team.

Right out of the gate, the team was successful. Hosting UW-Eau Claire on February 15, 2010, the team won 5-4. This was Valentini’s first win as a collegiate head coach. Next, however, the team played DePauw and Carnegie Mellon at the ITA Championships, the result of which was a loss to both, 3-6 against DePauw and 1-8 against Carnegie Mellon.

Despite these losses, the team had strong individuals who helped carry it through. Sophomore Amrik Donkena and first-year Tyler Johnson both picked up valuable points as doubles partners and in single matches in the Eau Claire bout.

Following their first two losses of the season, the Gusties came back to demolish the next four matches in a row. They won 9-0 against Hamline University, MSU-Mankato and Macalester. They also defeated Concordia 8-1. In the last month, the Men had five wins and only four losses. On April 9, they won 8-1 against St. John’s University, and on April 10 they edged out Carlton 6-3, staying undefeated in the MIAC.

All members are playing extremely well this season. The youngest members on the team have great promise as the senior members lead by example.

“Krishan Jethwa is a great senior captain who has led us by example incredibly well,” Clark said. “He is someone who does excellent in his academics and competes with a lot of heart on the court.” Senior Kyle Olson, too, has performed extremely well this season, taking the top spot in many of the matches.

The goals of the Gusties are team oriented. Their showing so far promises to be even better in the future as this fresh team moves into the rest of their 2010 season.