HAMILTON - The Raiders' men's tennis team returns to the court this weekend to take on Duquesne and St. Francis on Friday and Saturday. Colgate looks to keep the momentum built during the fall into the spring season after sending two singles representatives and one doubles team to compete in the Fall Patriot League Individual Championships.
"I'm very much looking forward to the spring season as we have a tremendous group and a great culture per usual. We have three outstanding senior captains with experienced juniors, a very talented sophomore class and three eager first-years," Coach Pennington said.Â
"Coming off a 12-8 season last year and fourth in the league, the men have no intention of going backwards as we return many starters with a talented freshman class. We look to have an even better overall record and a higher league finish."
The group is led by three senior captains, Aidan Lee, Aidan Chung, and John Fazli. Lee earned eight wins last season at line three while Chung and Fazli teamed up with sophomore Tim Viding for ten total doubles wins.
Coach Pennington added, "Most importantly we are healthy and have a core 11 guys. We are extremely deep, play great doubles and are very disciplined. We're gonna have a lot of very close matches in the spring both non-conference and conference and our league just keeps getting tougher, but I'm very confident we will be right in the thick of it come the end of spring."
The strength of the Raiders this season will be its depth. Returning from last season are juniors Parker McGowan and Jerome Falcon, and sophomores Lochlan Seth, Wesley Nichols, and Tim Viding. McGowan and Falcon led the way with a 16-4 doubles record while Falcon tacked on 13 singles wins. The sophomore group played a major role down the stretch as Seth picked up eight wins and Viding collected 16 wins across both single and doubles matches.
First-years, Witt Bulger, Adam Fink, and Tim Vargas will look to build off the fall. Bulger picked up a win over Lafayette in the Round of 32 at the Fall Championships.
The Raiders head to Pennsylvania this weekend before returning to New York on Valentines Day. Colgate's first home match will take place on Feb. 15 against Niagara.
