Posted: 05/02/07

Men's tennis falls to Bryant University
Injuries, procedural errors prove costly

Alex McIntire | contributing writer
amcintire@smcvt.edu

Coach Kevin Lizzo practices with his team. A procedural error cost the team one point in each singles match. (Echo Archives)

Heading into ITS first New England-10 (NE-10) Conference playoffs in two years, the St. Michael’s College men’s tennis team had plenty of momentum. A season ending 9-0 victory over Franklin Pierce College gave the Purple Knights their eighth win of the regular season. The Knights hadn’t had eight wins in a season since the 2001-2002 season. Eight wins gave them a fifth place seed heading into the conference tournament and meant that they wouldn’t be facing number one seeded Assumption College.

But with the good comes the bad. The Knights saw themselves facing difficulty as the playoffs came around. Three players were fighting through injuries during the season and a lineup mistake cost the Knights a one point penalty in all of their singles matches. These hardships didn’t bode well for the Knights, as they dropped their first round playoff match to Bryant University, 5-1.

Injuries and mistakes

A rule stating when a team must have its roster submitted caused the Knights to take one step back before even playing in its match Thursday, April 19. The quarterfinal match-up was originally scheduled for Wed., April 18 but because of extenuating circumstances, it was postponed a day.

The NE-10 rule states that a team must have its line up card in no later than 48 hours before the match, making Monday, April 16 at 2 p.m. the deadline for Wednesday's match.

According to men’s tennis Coach Kevin Lizzo, when the meet was postponed a day, he thought he had an extra day to turn in the lineup. Unbeknownst to Lizzo, the deadline was still Monday. This mistake cost the Purple Knights one point in every singles match, meaning every player started down 1-0. This penalty played a crucial role in some of the matches, he says.

“That may have taken a toll, a little bit mentally on some of the guys,” Lizzo says.

Junior Victor Terranova says he disagrees with the NE-10's ruling.

“We didn't do anything wrong. Ultimately the NE-10 is just unreasonable.” - Junior Victor Terranova

“We didn’t do anything wrong,” Terranova says. “There’s no real person to blame. I mean I guess Coach should have gotten it in by 2:00 p.m., but he was never told, ‘by Monday no matter what’. He was still working under 48 hours. Ultimately the NE-10 is just unreasonable.”

In addition to the mishap, injuries plagued the Knights for the better second half of the season and continued to have an effect on the men’s team heading into the quarterfinal round against Bryant. Sophomore Dmitri Repnikov, who played with an injured finger for the last few regular season matches, went into the playoffs still feeling the effects of his injury, he says.

“My first singles match wasn’t until the last regular season match, so I could have been more prepared,” Repnikov says. “I battled through the pain. It was a tennis injury.”

Repnikov was not the only one playing under one hundred percent. Junior Andy Samara was suffering from psoatic-nerve problems in his lower back for the last couple weeks of the season.

"Silly mistakes, double faults and silly errors"

Injury aside, Repnikov played in both his singles match as the teams' number three player and in his doubles match where he was paired up with Terranova in the number two position. Both of Repnikov’s matches ended in unfortunate upsets for the Knights whose top doubles combination of junior Andy Samara and sophomore John Lescure dropped their match as well, 8-5.

The Knights troubles on the court endured throughout the day as they failed to pick up any singles victories. Lescure, Samara, and Repnikov all lost close matches. The latter two forced a third set. The only win for St. Michael's came in a doubles victory where sophomore Sean Steigerwald and first-year Adam Brezinsky defeated their Bryant University opponents 8-3.

“We’ve all played so hard, and have actually worked real hard for the last two weeks to end with silly mistakes, double faults, and silly errors,” Terranova says. “That’s just a rough way to go out.”

Although the Knights were beaten 5-1, the one point penalty could have meant the difference. Lescure lost consecutive sets 6-4 and if he did not have to start off down by a point the out come could have been different, which would have made the score 4-2 in Bryant’s favor. In NE-10 playoff matches the first team to win five points wins the round. According to Terranova, in a 4-2 situation the Knights could have pulled off a few more wins.

“Once a team gets five the other matches that are going on just stop,” Terranova says. “Craig (Lindabery) was up 5-2, Adam (Brezinsky) lost the first set, Sean (Steigerward) lost the first set, so I mean we were all in holes. It could have been 5-4."

“We had some injuries and I think that really accounted for some of our third set losses, just in terms of stamina and physical presence on the court,” Samara says.

Looking ahead

Though the Knights lost in the playoffs this year, there is one thing they won’t be losing, seniors. The men’s tennis team had just three juniors on the team this year, making them top contenders for next year, according to Samara.

“Next year three of the top four teams in the conference are losing a couple of seniors each,” Samara says. “We were right on the brink of breaking into the top four this year so hopefully next year we’ll have a home playoff match and we can move on into the semi-finals.”

While the team isn’t boasting any recruits that will bring them to the very top, experience will be a part of their success next year, Terranova says.

“If Samara gets better and kids play over the summer then it will be interesting to see how that affects us next year,” Terranova says.

While it is unclear weather or not some of the athletes may go abroad, Lizzo has cast that notion aside and is especially excited for next season, he says.

“Next year with everyone coming back a year older and other schools losing some key players, we’ll be looking to jump into the top four in the conference,” Lizzo says.