Wake Forest Athletics
2004 Wake Forest Men's Tennis Preview
1/28/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Jan. 28, 2004
The Wake Forest men's tennis team travels to Ann Arbor on Saturday to face the Michigan Wolverines in the first dual match of the season for the Deacs. This will be the first of six straight road contests for the Deacons after hosting the ACC Indoor Championships in Winston-Salem Jan. 16-18. Wake Forest's first home match will be against East Tennessee State on February 20.
The 2003 Wake Forest Men's Tennis team finished the season ranked 30th in the nation with a 14-9 overall record. The Deacs placed fourth in the ACC with a 5-3 mark and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the first time in Wake Forest history.
"It was the best season we've had in the history of the program," said head coach Jeff Zinn. "We got the farthest that we ever had in the NCAA's. That was our goal at the start of the season. To get through a round and preferably to the Sweet 16. The other goal was to win the conference and quite frankly, I thought we were the second best team in the conference behind Duke. Duke was obviously the top team by beating us three times last year but all three of those matches were extremely close. Looking back on the season I felt that with the talent level we had, we accomplished so much. I was pleased with the season that we had."
This year, the Demon Deacons return two seniors, including All-ACC selection David Loewenthal. Zinn enters his eighth season as the head coach of Wake Forest and is looking to improve on last season's impressive record.
"This year, the talent level has gotten a little better as it does each and every year. This year is an exciting one for the coaching staff because we feel on paper its the best team we've had in the eight years we've been here. This is where we want to take it to another level. That's what each year we're trying to do. We feel like this is a very fine, talented group of players," says Zinn.
Along with Loewenthal, the Deacs return Andrew Simpson, Derrick Spice, Brett Ross and Liron Strauss. Zinn is also enthusiastic about his new crop of freshmen which includes Joe Bates, Will Chewning, Andrew Hamar and Todd Paul.
"When you bring back your top two players, Loewenthal and Spice, that shows you that you still have a good upper half of the team," said Zinn. "We had a redshirt player last year, Strauss who is going to make an immediate impact on our team. Andrew Hamar is going to make an immediate impact on the team and so will Todd Paul. We feel really good about the talent level we've brought in to replace some of the seniors that graduated last year. I think that's what is so exciting to our coaching staff. We feel like we've reloaded very well."
The performance of Zinn's Demon Deacons throughout the fall season showed fans and opponents that Wake Forest is a force to be reckoned with in 2004.
Hamar went 10-5 in his fall singles matches and was ranked 11th regionally in ITA's preseason rankings. Spice finished the fall with eight wins and made a strong run at the ITA Regional Championship but fell short in the semifinal match.
With a 12-4 mark in fall singles play, Paul recorded the most wins of any Demon Deacon. Zinn describes Paul's forehand as one of the best in the nation and the freshman showed this, advancing to the title match in each of his first two college tournaments.
On the doubles side, Wake Forest is looking for big things out of the Spice/Ross pairing, and they did not disappoint in the fall. The team won 11 of its 15 matches including the USC Invitational title and earned a preseason regional ranking of 14th.
During the spring season, Zinn and the Demon Deacons take on the always- dangerous ACC teams in addition to facing some talented non-conference competition.
"In the spring, I feel good about Miami coming in this year. It is always hard to get a Florida team out of Florida, so its good they're coming up to play us," Zinn said. "We always try to play the close by teams like Virginia Tech and South Carolina. Then we'll go up north to Michigan, Michigan State and Minnesota this year. We've played them the past two years when they've been a top ten team and we've beaten them, so we feel good about that."
Zinn and the Deacs have high expectations for the 2004 tennis season. "We're looking for a big year this year," said Zinn. "We can solidify ourselves in the Top 20. We got there last year but dropped out at the end of the year. This year, our goal is not only to get in the top 20, but stay in it throughout the season."
Players Mentioned
