Wake Forest Athletics News
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Tennis Teams Expecting Successful Spring Campaigns
Jan. 29, 2004
Men Although the Deacons have a nice distribution of experience, the talent level seems to be evenly distributed. "The strength is at the top of my lineup where we have David Loewenthal and DJ Spice," Zinn said. "They've been up there a couple of years, and they give a good effort every match. I think we're better at singles, but slowly but surely our doubles are getting better." Two seniors, David Loewenthal and Andrew Simpson, are leading the 2004 team according to Zinn. And Spice can be considered a seasoned veteran. Their wealth of experience is a key ingredient in this year's team. "They're doing a great job of getting the guys together and having team meetings amongst themselves. They're doing a great job as co-captains. We're still real tight and it's fun to come every day and coach these guys. They're good representatives of Wake Forest that's for sure." New to the team is Joe Bates, a transfer from Marquette. Andrew Hamar comes to Wake Forest from Pontypool, South Wales, where he competed in five different sports at Millfield High School. Todd Paul is a freshman who hails from Stamford, Conn. Paul lettered in tennis four years at Fairfield Prep School in Fairfield Conn. The other newcomer is Will Chewning, who honed his tennis skills at Boca Prep in Boca Raton, Fla. "Three out of the four will play in the lineup and will make an immediate impact on the team," Zinn said. "So far, Andrew Hamar has had the best results. But those new guys have played some tennis. It's not like we're a real young team and we need to wait a year to get them seasoned. That's not the case. That's what I like. I don't want to have those rebuilding years if I can help it." At the ACC Indoors, hosted by Wake Forest, fifth-seeded Hamar reached the quarterfinals, beating North Carolina's Brad Pomeroy, but fell in straight sets to the No. 4 seed, Stephen Rozek from Virginia. Rozek had reached the quarterfinals after defeating Paul 7-6, 6-4 in the round of 16. Brett Ross dropped a straight-set match to sixth-seeded Jose Muguruza of Georgia Tech. In the singles consolation bracket, Will Chewning and Andrew Simpson both lost opening-round matches. Liron Strauss, who has just become eligible for action this season following NCAA guidelines, won two straight and played Virginia's Chris Gonyer in the quarterfinals. In doubles, Wake Forest's Paul and Hamar defeated Virginia's Darin Cohen and Nick Meythaler to advance into the semifinals where they faced teammates Brett Ross and Derrick Spice, who took an 8-3 win over Uva.'s Marko Miklo and Stephen Rozek. Spice and Ross defeated teammates Andrew Hamar and Todd Paul 8-6 in the semifinals before falling 8-6 in the championship match to Duke's Peter Rodrigues and Jonathan Stokke. The Deacons did enjoy some success in the ACC Indoors, but the chance to play against league competition was no real barometer for Zinn or his team. He chose not to play Spice or Loewenthal, and other teams also played altered lineups. "It was like a tune-up, and we were a little short handed with Derrick Spice and David Loewenthal not playing singles. I didn't want either one of them to play that weekend." The schedule is, as always, tough. But there are some key matches Zinn can immediately identify. A trip to Minnesota, where the Deacons will play both the Golden Gophers and Virginia Commonwealth, should tell him much about his team. During spring break a match against Tulane should be a stiff challenge before Wake Forest gets into the bulk of its ACC schedule. "In the past I've put a lot of emphasis on individual matches, but this year I've tried to relax and not put so much emphasis on certain matches and just let it flow and try to peak at the right time," Zinn said. "I thought we did a pretty good job last year, but I still don't think we were playing our best tennis at the end of the year. So we've really been working in the offseason to get us the right training habits so we peak at the right time. "Kicking it off with Michigan and Michigan State on the road, I don't know what I was thinking. But it will be alright. We have 16 teams that are ranked on our schedule, but I want it that way and our players want it that way. If we want to have a program in the top 20 every year you have to do that. Now we talk about ACC titles and talk about Sweet 16. Our goals are pretty high. We don't hold back now we like we used to." The ACC title will once again go through Duke with the rest of the league providing stiff challenges as well. Duke, however, is the preseason favorite and if an ACC title should come to Wake Forest, the Deacons will have to figure out how to beat the Blue Devils. "Our big push right now is to see how we match up them," Zinn said. "There's just such a belief system there, and they have a right to have that. They recruit well, and they're always out there fighting me on every player. But we'll be alright this year. We match up, and we'll see if we can play better this year. Every match is winnable. And if we stay lucky with injuries (not having them) and have our best six playing, we can keep it going." The men's tennis team will open its season Jan. 31 at Michigan.
WOMEN "After last year's tough season... we have six returners who went through that, and they're tougher for that," Coach Brian Fleishman of Wake Forest said. "They know what it feels like to lose. They know what it feels like to have a losing season. We definitely finished last season on very a high note, giving Clemson, which was a top-20 team in the country, all it could handle in the ACC Tournament. So we ended on a good note, and now our goal is to get revenge on some of those teams we lost to last year." One reason to believe that this season will be different is talent. Three members of the team are ranked among the top 100 in the country, according to the first set of rankings released by the ITA in 2004. The newcomers should also have an impact of the team this spring. "We have three freshman, two of which are scholarship players and one a walk-on," Fleishman said. "But all three of them are bringing a lot to the team and to practice every day. You don't know how freshmen are going to perform until they're out there in the heat of battle, but I have a lot of faith in all three of them. No matter where I put them or on what court I have a lot of confidence that they're going to go out there and leave it all on the court. That's all I'm asking, and they can do that. That's going to make a big difference in our season. All the experience with the six returners, we're going to use that, and the two seniors, Aimee Smith and Elizabeth Proctor, want to go out on a good note." Junior Karin Coetzee (15th), freshman Alex Hirsch (38th) and junior Katie Martzolf (94th) each earned individual rankings while two Demon Deacon doubles teams were also ranked among the top 20. Coetzee, a native of Bloemfontein, South Africa, had a 13-2 record in fall action and is fourth in the Southeast Region. The doubles team of Coetzee and Aimee Smith, who rank fourth in the Southeast Region, are ranked 15th. The tandem recorded a fall record of 13-2 and finished second in the 2003 ITA Southeast Regional Indoor Championship. Hirsch went 7-1 this past fall and reached the 2003 ITA Southeast Regional Indoor Championship semifinals. Hirsch is a top-ranked player in the Southern Section who was listed 23rd in the nation and ranked 138th in the International Tennis Federation's world juniors singles rankings. Martzolf, ranked 94th, had injuries during the fall but still finished the season 6-3. Martzolf and freshman Ashlee Davis were ranked 20th in doubles. They did not play together in the fall, but Martzolf went 7-1 in doubles, while Davis was 2-2. But with such parity in NCAA tennis having talent doesn't guarantee victories. "Knowing there's no easy matches, we learned that last year," Fleishman said. "We have to work for everything we get. Some days we're going to come up short, and some days we're going to do really well. But all around the team is bigger, which takes a little pressure off of you. But that will push you every day in practice. Just for that reason already we're a better team and we haven't even played our first match yet." Martzolf, a junior, and Coetzee are serving as co-captains of this year's team, but Fleishman said seniors Aimee Smith and Elizabeth Proctor have also taken on some of the leadership responsibilities. "All nine players came out of the fall with winning records individually," Fleishman said. "Three players are nationally ranked, and two of the doubles teams are nationally ranked, but then again the fall is not a good indicator because we had a good fall last year. But just with the personnel we have on the court, I would say we're going to have a much better season than we did last year." Wake Forest will open its 2004 spring season at noon on Jan. 31 at Leighton Tennis Stadium against UNC-Charlotte. |