Carthage and UW-Oshkosh each blanked Lakeland’s shorthanded men’s tennis 9-0 March 5 at the YMCA Tennis Center in Oshkosh, Wis.
Lakeland went into both matches behind 3-0 after defaulting at No. 5 and 6 and No. 3 doubles with only four players at the competition.
Seniors Tom Kuehl and junior Yu Sasaki combined at No. 1 doubles for Lakeland’s closest match against nationally-ranked Carthage, an 8-1 loss.
Kuehl lost by another 8-1 margin, this time with junior Yu Sasaki as his partner against Oshkosh’s No. 1.
Junior No. 3 Kazuya Kodayama lost 6-1, 6-0 for Lakeland’s only other breakthrough on the scoreboard of the day against the Titans, who haven’t dropped a match this year against opponents Lakeland will play in the Northern Athletic Conference (NAC).
Men’s Tennis Coach Casey Carr said while his team has room for improvement, the scores of its matches this weekend don’t tell the whole story.
“We definitely need to improve our serving percentages and learn how to stay in points. When we’re playing against experienced opponents we can still stay competitive by letting our opponent make the mistakes.
“The box scores mean absolutely nothing as to what actually happened in the matches. All of the games were close but just went the other way. It gave me a lot of confidence that the guys hustled and played as smart as they did against such competitive teams,” Carr said.
Carr and the team’s captain, Kuehl, applauded the efforts of the team’s four international students last weekend against Carthage’s and Oshkosh’s seasoned players. They said the additions Dane Maier, Andy Cheever, and Brandon Robinson—who will be unavailable to play tennis until after their Lakeland volleyball schedule finishes in early April—will benefit the team.
“When we get the volleyball players back, it will move everyone else down in the lineup,” Kuehl said. “Some of the international students have only been playing for three months and it’s impressive what they did against Carthage and Oshkosh. It’s basically like taking a person who just turned pro and putting him up against [Roger] Federer.”
Carr, in his first season as the men’s tennis coach, said he hopes his team can challenge traditional conference powers like MSOE and Concordia-Wisconsin by recruiting extensively in the future.
“It’s time for us to be known as the team nobody wants to play against,” he said.
Lakeland’s next match is April 4, when they will host UW-Sheboygan.