Alli Joerger – Staff Writer

After the 2021 ITA Midwest Region Championship, the Gustavus Tennis team was dissatisfied with not qualifying athletes for the ITA Cup. Nonetheless they are content with their overall performances and are currently gearing up for the spring season. In a turn of events, doubles semi finalists at the Region tournament Senior Nick Aney and Junior Alex Budde were told four days prior to the national competition that they were now eligible to compete. Despite the surprise and the quick turnaround, the pair traveled to Rome, GA to compete amongst the best 56 Division III doubles teams in the nation, with Aney and Budde eventually falling in the quarter final round.

Having the opportunity to compete at the national level was a culmination of the pair’s goals from this season as well as last spring. After competing at the NCAA Tournament this spring, Aney and Budde felt that they had unfinished business and more goals to achieve this fall.

“It was kind of the end goal for the fall,” Budde said, and Head Coach Tommy Valentini reiterated. With the fall season being so short and less intense, it was important for the doubles team to keep their goals in sight and carry over their high expectations for themselves into the fall.
In addition to the general team priority placed on the tournament, the 2021 ITA Cup had a special place in the heart of the senior competitor. “Competing in the ITA… has been a dream of mine since my freshman year,” Aney said. After narrowly missing opportunities to compete at the tournament in his first two years and it being canceled in 2020 due to COVID-19, Aney was extremely thankful for the abrupt opportunity to compete this year.
In the eyes of their support systems, Aney and Budde were an excellent representation of upperclassmen leadership. “They handled the ups and downs with a great deal of poise and stuck together beautifully. In their first match they showed incredible focus and guts to hold serve as often as they did, and to see them come through in the clutch moments at the end of the match – winning the last two points of the 3rd set Tiebreak to defeat the #1 seed and become All-Americans for the second straight year – was a thrill,” Valentini said.
Despite the importance of this tournament to themselves and the program, Aney and Budde were given almost no time to mentally or physically prepare given their short notice for qualifying. While this may seem intimidating on the surface, the pair took the obstacle in stride and turned it into an opportunity for mental toughness. “Mentally, it honestly kind of helped us because it didn’t really feel like we were there yet. We didn’t have time to think about it,” Budde said.

Aney added that the pair told themselves the tournament was “bonus tennis” and was simply another opportunity they had to improve and compete after what they thought was the end of their season. Physically, the doubles team had already begun their off season and were only able to have two days of practice and one practice session in Rome before the matches began on October 14th. However, Aney and Budde utilized the competition they faced during the season as a reminder of their athletic talent and mental toughness, and used their emotions from the Region Championship and the spring season to guide their focus going into the ITA Cup.
Coach Valentini also explained that much of the preparation for the tournament was more rushed than anyone would have wanted. Instead of having typical preparation, “…we tried to sharpen up their game, and prepare with a number of conversations about our gameplans, tactically, mentally, and emotionally for the event,” Valentini said. Aney explained that these tactical conversations were built on areas of potential improvement exposed by the intense competition at the Region Championship.
Moving forward, the pair has their sights set on the 2022 NCAA Tournament and plans to use their results from the ITA Cup to guide both themselves and the team through the off season and into the spring. While off season training for the tennis team is more individualized, the team as a whole recognizes the importance of starting early and committing to the process in order to see results.

Aney and Budde’s short notice qualification after general team dissatisfaction with performances at the Regional Championships has provided the team with a replenished motivation and, “the energy to get back into it,” Budde said. Not only that but the ITA Cup exposed what Aney describes as a “team first attitude” that is representative of Gustie tennis. “Individual awards and accolades are fun, but the more I mature the more I realize that I care so much more about team success,” Aney said.
Overall, Aney and Budde’s opportunity at the ITA Cup and their ability to capitalize on it is indicative of the excellence on the team and the pride that Gustavus Tennis takes in competing every day. The pair now has new goals for themselves and their team and Coach Valentini views their success as an incredibly positive indicator of the team’s overall potential.
“They [Aney and Budde] represented our program beautifully throughout the event. They know who we are and are great caretakers of our culture – along with the rest of our upperclassmen. Their experience at the ITA Cup and the way they will grow from it moving forward will have a big impact on the team we can become this spring,” Valenti said.