Lehigh’s men’s tennis team feels that it is ready to play its best this weekend for the Patriot League Tournament, despite being in the middle of the pack in the league standings.
Looking towards this year’s tournament, Lehigh is in a position to nab the sixth seed, leading Loyola University (Maryland), Lafayette College and the College of the Holy Cross.
The Mountain Hawks have just two matches left of their season before the tournament. The team boasts a winning overall record of 11-9, but has a losing 2-3 record thus far in the Patriot League, with one game remaining against Lafayette.
In the past, the Mountain Hawks have had success in the Patriot League Tournament, and they even won in 2013.
That year, Lehigh was seeded second overall. The Mountain Hawks faced Holy Cross in the first round, dominating them 4-0. They went on to play Bucknell University in the semi-finals, defeating them 4-3 in a close match — a rebound after having lost to the Bison just five days before the tournament started. In the finals, the Mountain Hawks toppled Navy 4-0, giving Lehigh an automatic bid into the NCAA tournament.
“The emotional win versus Bucknell the day before gave us a good deal of confidence going into the finals,” senior Mitchell Petersen said. “We had lost the doubles point to both Bucknell and Navy during league play, but we were able to come back and win the doubles point versus Bucknell in the semi-finals and Navy in the finals.”
Senior Ben Gilman reflected on the 2013 win, as well, calling it an “incredible experience.”
“Everyone was playing their best tennis at the right time, and we really came together as a team to pick each other up throughout the tournament,” he said.
In 2014, however, the Mountain Hawks fell in the semi-finals against Army.
This season, the team is coming off of two hard losses, recently falling to Army 5-2 and Bucknell in a close match of 4-3. However, the team heads into its last two season matches with optimism.
Although the team took the loss hard, Gilman said that the experience would help hone their focus for future games.
Petersen echoed his teammate.
“The loss versus Bucknell on Monday (April 6) will serve as a wakeup call,” he said. “(It will) help us to refocus for our last two matches and the Patriot League Tournament.”
One of the areas of Lehigh’s play that the team feels it needs to refocus on is its doubles play. One of the team’s doubles players, Graham Lehman, is focused on achieving this goal.
“I think one of the biggest things is securing the doubles point early on,” sophomore Lehman said. “That’s something we weren’t able to do in our last two matches and ultimately ended up costing us the match against Bucknell.”
The Mountain Hawks will be paying close attention to their doubles play in practice leading up to the tournament.
“At the start of the season, we were playing some very good doubles,” Gilman said. “We have gotten away from that a little bit in our recent matches, but I think if we can find our form again in doubles that would help us greatly in the tournament.”
While the brackets are not set up yet, the team is prepared to face some strong teams this year.
The current top three of Boston University, Army and Navy are all challenging teams that the team is prepared to face. However, as Lehman pointed out, Lehigh tends to play better against better teams.
“There are a lot of good teams in the league this year,” Gilman said. “Whoever we face, we will have to play well.”
The Patriot League Tournament will be hosted by Bucknell this year, from April 16-19.
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