Men's tennis serves their way to the Big Sky Tournament

The EWU Men's Tennis team will wrap up the final week of regular season matches before the start of the tournament on April 25. The Eagles are currently 14-6, 5-1 in the conference and tied for second place in the Big Sky.

"I think that we have to play our best for the remainder of the season," said interim Head Coach Darren Haworth. "Everybody has to play their best and play smart."

According to Haworth, the team's mindset is that they will go on to the championship game and win the Big Sky Tournament come April 27. He has been preparing his team through tough challenges during practices.

"Saturday we had a practice that really challenged the guys in a competitive manner," said Haworth. "We divided them into two teams and the losing team had to run. So there's a lot of competitive stuff within the team to challenge each other so that when it comes time to the tournament, the guys are going to step it up a notch."

According to Haworth, the biggest match for the team was their first conference game in February against Montana State, where the team rallied from a 3-0 deficit to beat the Bobcats 4-3.

"This game just gave us the confidence that we could beat just about anybody," he said.

The Montana State game set the tone for the Eagles as they went on to win five of their last six conference matches. Their only loss to a Big Sky opponent was against undefeated Sacramento State, when the Hornets' Sven-David Rueff outlasted Eastern's Kenneth Norling, 6-3, 6-7 (7-9), 6-4 in the final match-up to lead their team to a 4-3 victory.

"Losing a close match to Sacramento State 4-3 just proves that we're right there with the best in the conference," said Haworth. "A few points can change the match either way."

The Hornets currently finished their season with an 8-0 conference record after defeating Portland State 6-1 on Saturday, knocking the Eagles out of contention for the number one seed in the tournament.

The Eagles still have two more games to play before the Big Sky Tournament. The two remaining games are against Weber State on Friday and Montana on Sunday. The Weber State game is a crucial match-up for both teams because they are battling for the second seed in the tournament. Both teams post the same 5-1 record in the conference, and the winner of Friday's match-up will most likely lock up the second seed in the tournament.

"We're tied for second with Weber and it's going to be a battle," said Haworth. "We have them at home, and we've done really well at home. We have to keep that up."

The team previously faced Northern Arizona on Friday, where the Eagles dominated the Lumberjacks from start to finish with a 7-0 victory, tying the school's record for overall wins and league victories. The Eagles have only won 14 matches overall and five league matches since joining NCAA Division I in 1984. This was also the team's third straight 7-0 victory of the season, the other two being against Gonzaga and Portland State.

"It was an extremely dominating performance," said Haworth. "The guys all played really well. It was our first outdoor match of the season, which really benefits us."

He also added that a lot of his guys adapt better to the different elements in outdoor tennis, therefore giving his team the advantage.

With the success of this year's team, Haworth owed it to the team's unity and ability to keep pushing themselves on the court.

"There's no individual performance, it's definitely a team unit that respect each other highly. It's going to take a team effort to win."

Haworth also added that juniors Pannhara Mam and Kyle Schraeder are the two athletes who really stand out on the team.

"They feed off each other," he said. "If one guy is playing really well, then usually the other one feeds off of that. They're really able to get the rest of the team fired up."

So with just two conference games remaining and the team looking to clinch the second seed, Haworth believes that his guys need to have heart down the stretch in order to be victorious come tournament time.

"We're not a pushover," he said. "Our guys come to play. There's no doubt in my mind that they can do it. We had a few changes in our lineup. I feel that we'll be able to bring the most competitive lineup to the matches."