This past Saturday, the men’s tennis team sent the Black Squirrels back home to Haverford after dominating them in an exciting 8-1 victory. But crushing opponents and taking names is nothing new for this talented team. After adding Haverford to their list of fallen opponents, the men ended their regular season with an 8-1 record in conference play and clinched the second seed in the upcoming Centennial Conference Tournament.
“We don’t really see Haverford as our enemies, but as a good competitor that we battle year after year,” Anthony Collard ’14 reflected. “I’m glad that we were able to come back strong this year and destroy them.”
Max Kaye ’14 echoed Collard’s sentiments, saying, “I personally didn’t get to play Haverford last year because I was injured, so I had a lot of expectations going into this year’s game. We love to beat Haverford and I think the whole campus does as well.”
And the whole campus did. With the bleachers packed on Saturday, their victory marked one of the most well attended games in the players’ careers. “I think that was the biggest crowd we’ve ever had. There were probably over 100 people there. It was nice getting the kind of crowd we wanted. Seeing all those supporters was amazing.” Kaye said.
“Malik [Mubeen ’13] told me that in his four years, that turnout was the most people he’d ever seen at a Swarthmore tennis match. I think that’s just telling as to how exciting this season has been for us and I think for everyone,” Thomas Vernier ’17 added.
During this past season, the men have definitely established their role as a force to be reckoned with. Their conference record reflects only one loss against the challenging opponent Johns Hopkins, who is currently ranked sixth in the nation. In addition to the team’s collectively impressive performance, the individual players hold notable records of their own, including John Larkin ’17, who remains undefeated in singles in conference, Kaye, who is undefeated in singles in the region, and Vernier and Collard, who stand undefeated in doubles in conference as well.
However, the team continues to constantly push themselves to be better athletes by adopting a mentality that always holds their performance to the highest of standards. “We didn’t meet our expectations in a couple of ways this season,” Kaye explained. “We thought we would be able to beat the top 15 nationally ranked teams and we came up short. But at the end of the day, we crushed our conference this year and we’re better than we’ve ever been,” he concluded.
“I think what separates this year from season’s past is our consistency and chemistry on the team,” Collard added. With an incredibly close team this year, the men were able to combine both their chemistry and athletic skill to re-establish their standing in conference. “I think I’m most proud of our redemption from last year,” Collard added, reflecting on last year’s losses to both F&M and Haverford. “This time we swept F&M and almost swept Haverford; the wins were a great team effort all the way through.”
The Haverford game not only served as a means of redemption, but also as a means of commemoration. The match fell on the team’s Senior Day, a day dedicated to celebrate and honor all of the seniors on the team for their efforts throughout their four years at Swarthmore. This day was particularly significant for the team because its graduating class holds a 100 percent retention rate, meaning that all five of the athletes (Collard, Kaye, Preston Poon ’14, Christian Carcione ’14 and Danny Park ’14) who joined the team their freshman year remained on the team until their graduation.
“I think this senior day was especially meaningful to our coaches [head coach Mike Mullan and assistant coach Josh Schofield] because all five of us seniors came in together and all five of us graduated together,” Park ’14 explained. “The coaches talked about how much they enjoyed having us on the team and how much they enjoyed our efforts. It was nice to see them express their gratitude for that.”
In addition to holding an informal breakfast ceremony at Mullan’s home, the two coaches gave each of the graduating players a picture frame of all five of the seniors, reflecting the long journey the men have had with one another.
“It was one of the best presents I’ve ever received in my life,” Kaye admitted. “It’s been a real rollercoaster with all of us seniors and looking at that picture lets me know that these are my guys. It’s something I’ll always have.”
Along with serving as sources of motivational support for one another, this year’s group of seniors has definitely served as a source of inspiration for the rest of the team. “I want to thank the seniors for an incredible year. They’ve been role models to the team on and off the court,” Vernier began. “They’ve provided an immense amount of leadership and model behavior, especially to us freshman, and have instilled a lot of honesty and hard work into our entire program.”
However, the seniors’ career at Swarthmore isn’t over yet. With the semifinals of the Centennial Conference Tournament taking place at Swarthmore this coming Saturday, the men are excited to see what the future holds. “Going to nationals is our priority and goal,” Kaye said. “We’ll focus on Haverford this week and hopefully we’ll play as well as we did on Saturday. And if we do that, next up is Hopkins, and I really do think they’re scared of us.”
With an intimidating conference record of 8-1, who wouldn’t be scared? Although Hopkins has established its role as the most challenging opponent in conference, the men are prepared for a rematch. “Because of our losses to Hopkins in the past, we started to get the mentality that Hopkins is a team that could never be beat,” Kaye continued, “but I think that this year, more than any other year, we believe that we can truly win.”
Led by five strong seniors and strengthened by an overall incredibly talented team, the Swarthmore men’s tennis team continues their push toward nationals with their semi-final home game against Haverford this Saturday, May 3 at 1:00pm. The team hopes to have an even bigger crowd this week as they seek to let the Squirrels know, yet again, who runs this part of town.
