The Maroons have a big weekend ahead of them, with matches Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Both teams will face off against Denison Friday night and then Case Western Reserve the following afternoon. Then the two teams will travel to Cleveland on Sunday where the men will play against Oberlin College and the women will compete against No. 16 Trinity University.
Both the men’s and women’s teams are currently ranked ninth and hope to climb the rankings by completing the trifecta this weekend. For the men, the toughest matchup appears to be against No. 15 Case Western Reserve. The Spartans are currently 0–2 but their first matchup was against two strong DI opponents and they have a ton of returning talent from their school record 22-win season just last year. The Maroons will certainly be tested by Spartan fourth-year James Fojtasek—his success last year earned him the ranking of 13th best singles player according to ITA.
The women’s toughest matchup will come on Sunday when they step onto the court against the Trinity Tigers. The Tigers are also 0–2 but have a similar start as the Spartans—both defeats coming from DI programs. Heading into the match, the Maroons will certainly be aware of Trinity third-year Caroline Kutach who received all league honors in both singles and doubles as a second-year. Maroon first-year Clair Handa hopes to add a strong spring to her already impressive first-year fall. Handa is an ITA All-American in singles and placed fourth at the ITA Oracle Cup.
The Maroons are extremely excited to get back into the swing of things as the season truly kicks off this weekend. First-year Alejandro Rodriguez said, “We are looking forward to testing ourselves against three good teams for our first away matches of the season.”
Standout second-year Ninan Kumar said, “We are all really looking forward to these upcoming matches. It will be our first test of the season so I’m excited to see where we are as a team. We have a lot of young talent that are poised to make an impact as well as our seniors playing as good as they have in the past, if not better.”
The Maroons could not be more excited to attempt to improve on their outstanding seasons last year (both finishing 18–5). The expectations could not be higher as both teams are confident in their ability to come out of every match this season with victories.
