Despite a slew of new faces this year for the Hoyas, the Big East Tournament was deja vu all over again for a depleted Georgetown tennis team.
Coming in with a first year coach, three freshmen who play regularly and a junior transfer captaining the squad, the Hoyas lost in the first round to Louisville, 4-0, and in the consolation bracket to Marquette, 4-1, to finish tied for last place in the eight-member field.
The disappointing finish prolongs the Hoyas’ streak of poor showings in the conference tournament. The Hoyas have not finished in the top half of the field since 1995, and placed at the bottom of the standings for the second-straight tournament.
But Head Coach Gordie Ernst was not disappointed, saying that the team could use its performance as a stepping stone to build upon next season.
“The team played very, very well,” he said. “They played as hard as they possibly could have, and I couldn’t be more pleased.”
Ernst attributed the losses to the absence of several key players from the lineup. Freshman Anthony Tan, who usually plays No.1 singles, did not make the trip because of a coach’s decision, junior co-captain and No. 5 singles player Etienne Paris broke his foot two days prior to the tournament, and freshman David Tillem, who usually played No. 6 singles and No. 3 doubles, was still nursing a wrist injury.
Entering the tournament as the seventh seed, Georgetown (12-10, 3-3) fell on Friday morning to Louisville (10-15, 3-2), which held the tournament’s second seed and was ranked 59th in the nation. The Cardinals, who lost to Notre Dame in the finals of the tournament, quickly took the doubles point and first three singles matches to clinch a 4-0 win.
“As for Louisville, we’re just not ready for that team,” Ernst said.
Although the Hoyas were shut out, they were not completely outclassed by the nationally-ranked Cardinals. Junior co-captain Jeff Schnell was poised to force a third set at No. 1 singles against Slavko Radman, the nation’s No. 68 singles player, and junior Ted Tywang held a one-set lead at No. 4 singles when the match was decided.
Saturday’s consolation bracket match saw Georgetown drop a 4-1 decision to Marquette (14-8, 2-3), who had lost to host South Florida in the first round.
The Golden Eagles took a 1-0 lead from doubles play into the singles matches, and went up 3-0 after straight set victories at No. 2 and No. 5. The Hoyas got their first and only point of the weekend when Tywang defeated junior Brett Binkley in two sets. Tywang did not relinquish a set in the two matches.
“Ted was a great leader all weekend,” Ernst said.
Needing to win all three remaining matches, the Hoyas’ comeback fell short as they ran out of gas. Sophomore Ken Wong held a one set lead and sophomore Adam Gross had a one game lead in the third set of his match, but Schnell could not hang on, as he lost at No. 1 singles, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.
“The Marquette match was the big one,” Ernst said. “Had we had Anthony [Tan] in the match we would have won.”
The Golden Eagles defeated DePaul the following day to take fifth place in the tournament.
The match for seventh place between Georgetown and Villanova was not played, so both teams share seventh. The Hoyas beat the Wildcats 7-0 earlier this season.
Although Georgetown will not receive an NCAA postseason bid, Ernst suggested that the season was a success nonetheless, as the Hoyas recorded the program’s first winning record of the decade.
“Now we’re going to look to build on this for next year,” he said.
Georgetown will only lose one senior to graduation, Bert Baggio, and he only competed in five matches during the year. The Hoyas will return their overall wins leader in Tywang, their singles wins leader in Gross and their No. 1 singles player in Tan. Georgetown will also welcome back co-captains Schnell and Paris. Schnell played both No. 1 singles and No. 1 doubles at various times throughout the season.
