The Red Devil’s men’s and women’s tennis teams visited the College of New Jersey (TCNJ) this past weekend to play their first official matches of the 2013 spring tennis season. Both teams  had a difficult time, however, falling to the Lions 9-0.

After a strong performance in September at the Regional Championships, Ari Blask ’14 gave his best effort in the second singles flight, losing consecutive sets 6-0 and 6-4. The men’s troubles continued into the doubles portion of the match, where Will Golinkin ’13 teamed up with classmate Christian Mueller-Wolf and fell 8-6 to the Lions number one duo.

The women also had their hands full with a 26th-ranked TCNJ squad. Although the women fell 9-0 to the Lions, a high point in the contest occurred when Sydney Diamond ’16 won the first set 6-2 in the number three matchup before falling in the final two sets. Illana Unger ’16 forced three sets in her match as well after taking the first set 6-4, however went on to lose the next two sets 6-1 and 10-5. After the women’s team presented a strong showing at the ITA Regional Championships in September, the TCNJ match was a good tune up for an undoubtedly strong season.

Despite the tough result in New Jersey, both the men’s and women’s teams continue to prepare for a strong season in the Centennial Conference. The women will look to build off of last season’s success,  when they won 15 games and earned the #2-seed in the Centennial Conference tournament. The men look to get back to the tournament after finishing 4-5 in conference play last season. Due to the weather, the teams will not face a conference opponent this year until March 23 when they host Washington College. Until then, they will take their talents to South Carolina where they will participate in a spring break series of matches in the warm weather. Both teams will take on Missouri Valley, Rhodes and Denison over the course of the week. The women will also match up against Milligan and Rensselaer as the men will tussle with Tusculum.