The Manchester College men’s tennis team has seen its struggles in the first nine matches of the season, but are hoping to turn the corner in the next few weeks. The Spartans currently stand at 1-8 overall, and display a conference record of 1-4. These losses, however, don’t reflect how competitive the young Spartans have been in each and every match up to date.

  
Manchester’s roster consists of four first-years, three sophomores, and one junior, with all of the first-years playing pivotal roles in both the singles and doubles matches. Andrew Tkacs, a junior, is currently playing first singles with Josh Walker, a first-year, right behind him at the second singles spot. The other four singles players are Jeremy Patterson, Dan Beedle, Craig Craun and Dustin Schutte.

  
The doubles teams for the Spartans consist of the duo Andrew Tkacs and Dan Beedle at first doubles, with the combination of Josh Walker/ Jeremy Patterson and Craig Craun/ Kyle Watson filling the second and third team doubles teams.

  
Wins have been tough to come by for this youthful squad, in large part to the inexperience that is being put out there on the court. However, first-year Jeremy Patterson insists that the wins will come in time as guys start to become more comfortable with both one another, and with first-year head coach Eric Christiansen.

“Coach has us going in the right direction and he has a tremendous knowledge of the game as far as putting guys in spots where they can succeed,” Patterson said. “His laid back personality has helped us maintain a positive attitude even after tough losses because he also knows that we’re right there, just a few bounces haven’t gone our way yet.”

  
The Spartans, although only possessing one win, have been extremely competitive in all of their losses losing to Adrian and Earlham by scores of only 5-4, and playing Tri-State very tough before being defeated 6-3.

  
Some contributing factors in the Spartans’ rough start have included both their lack of game experience and their lack of depth, as every guy on the roster has been forced to play both singles and doubles this season, with the exception of a few. “Inexperience has been a major factor in not winning some games and I don’t really feel like any one guy has been that consistent throughout each match,” Patterson noted. “No one has played their best tennis yet and with a new head coach, it’s almost like everyone is a first-year because we’re still all adjusting to the way he does things.”

Thus far, Transylvania looks to be the top dog in the always challenging Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference. They dismantled the Spartans 9-0 in a match that took place on March 15 and have a great deal of upperclassman back from a successful run last year. Other contenders based on play so far look to be Rose-Huhlman and Bluffton with many other teams in contention.

  
“The league is very competitive because anybody can be knocked off on any given night,” Patterson said. “It makes it exciting, yet frustrating at the same time because we’ve been on the short end of the stick thus far, and it won’t get any easier within the conference.”

  
Eight of the nine teams will be invited to the conference tournament being held on April 26-27. The location of the tournament will be held at the top seed’s courts, indicating that the Spartans will have to make the five-hour drive to Transylvania, as it looks to be the clear-cut favorite of earning that top spot.

The Spartans will soon need to kick it in gear and have both their singles and doubles athletes playing their best tennis of the year, if tournament aspirations want to be earned. The potential is there, the talent is there, and according to Patterson, Coach Christiansen has done an outstanding job in working with such a young team in only his first year as head tennis coach. Now these tough losses just need to turn into hard earned victories. “We’re so close, but our record doesn’t show that,” Patterson said. “Our goals right now are just to get things turned around and get everyone on the same page, so that we can play our best tennis at the most critical time of the year.”

The Spartans will resume play this weekend as they will host Franklin College and Hanover College in a tri-match starting at 9 a.m.

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