by Emanuel Andras
With one more victory, the Grinnell men’s tennis team will claim its fourth consecutive Midwest Conference South Division title.
On Saturday, the team faces a tough doubleheader against Knox College and Luther College. If the Pioneers manage to defeat Knox, they will sweep the South Division and clinch the number one seed for the team tournament.
“The Knox match will be a big one this weekend for two reasons,” said team captain Jim Finnessy ‘’04. “In beating Knox, we will sweep the South Division and we’ll be guaranteed to be number one seed out of the south for the team tournament. Also, a victory over Knox would be our 20th win of the season.”
The competition promises to be intense though. Head coach Andy Hamilton claims “the most important match on Saturday [will be against] Knox.” However, the Pioneers do not expect the Prairie Fire to be as strong as the competition that they have faced over the last several weeks. Indeed, Finnessy boasted, “I’m pretty confident that we’ll stick it to them on Saturday.”
The Prairie Fire currently hold a 2-1 record in the South Division, having recently lost to Lake Forest. Grinnell, at 3-0, is a game ahead of them. Neither team has clinched a playoff berth, but Grinnell can clinch the top spot with a win.
“Even if we lose we have a chance to advance,” said Hamilton, but Grinnell would prefer to have its playoff fate in its own hands. “We will be focused. We beat Knox twice last season, 4-3, and this year they are weaker and we are stronger.”
Hamilton is also wary of Luther, describing it as “a very good team,” and “talent wise, the second best in the Iowa Conference.” Both matches will be played at home on the new tennis courts on Saturday at 12:00 and 3:30 pm, respectively.
Grinnell may be facing tough competition, but it has momentum in its favor. After two victories this weekend, the Pioneers have achieved a school-record 19 victories against only five defeats (the previous mark was 15 wins), and have won six straight. Last Friday, the Pioneers beat Ripon 5-2 and on the next day demolished Lawrence 7-0, for a pair of critical conference wins.
“Going into the season, we figured that Lawrence would be our toughest competition for a conference championship,” said Finnessy, “but they are currently missing three of their top six starters. With the loss of those three players, our traditional rival Ripon will most likely be our toughest challenge in the conference tournament.”
Playing on Friday against a Ripon Red Hawks team that had bested them for the past nine years in the regular season, Eli Best ’07, Rick Fenbert ’06, Brij Patnaik ’05 and Julian West ’06 provided solid play, winning their respective singles matches. Grinnell’s doubles wins came from the duo of Patnaik/Shihan Abeygunawarda ’05, and Kushal Shah ’06/Eric Ohrn ’07. The next day, team captain Jim Finnessy ’04, Best, Fenbert, Patnaik, West and Shah continued the winning streak at singles, while Patnaik/Abeygunawarda and Shah/Ohrn defeated their Lawrence doubles opponents.
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