Men’s Tennis Season Update

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When the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) released its preseason conference rankings in January following the fall season, Millikin found themselves sitting 4th in the conference behind Augustana, Wheaton, and Carthage.  Augustana received seven of the eight first-place votes from coaches within the conference while Wheaton received the only other first-place vote.  Millikin, as well as other teams in the conference, have a lot to prove heading into the 2019 Spring season.

After a solid stint in September as a unit, the team is hoping to continue to build off the positives and get stronger from the top of the lineup to the bottom not only individually but as a team.  The team is already off to good start and as February comes to close, they are sitting in a good spot within the conference and are in a position to make a run as the heart of the season still lies ahead.  After a couple of toss losses to open the season, the team has bounced back in a big way. Last weekend, the Big Blue scored a big momentum boost when they were able to bring home two match victories as a team after beating Franklin College and Cornell College in a doubleheader.  Jacob Palley, Colin Sandgren, Greg Schwoeppe, Logan Bennett, Holden Owens, and Nick Laramee all captured two singles victories a piece while the one and two doubles teams were able to win twice a piece and the third doubles team also brought home a win as well. Now sitting at a team record of 3-2, the team looks forward to taking on Eastern Illinois University in its next match.

They will continue to try and gain momentum when the team travels to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina over spring break to compete in the Spring Tennis Fest.  The team will be competing against schools such as UT Dallas, University of Lynchburg, Westminster College in Pennsylvania, and the University of Mount Zion. The team will have a chance to experience different and stiff competition which should help set the team up to finish strong and reach a top three finish within their conference.