Men’s tennis breaks top 50 in the nation

By Nate Henneke Staff Writer

UTSA tennis is having a historical season this year by being the first men’s tennis team to break the top 50 in the national ranking. A season filled with tough opponents has tested the team and they have proved that they deserve their national ranking of 47. Playing against universities like UT Austin and TCU, ranked No. 2 and No. 1, respectively, has shown that UTSA can be competitive with the best schools in the nation.

Senior Sebastian Rodriguez has played with UTSA since he was a freshman and has found a family away from home alongside his teammates. He has high aspirations for the remainder of the season.

“We can beat any team in the country, no matter, we can beat number one or number 50, it is the same,” Rodriguez stated. Rodriguez and his doubles partner Alan Magadan are finding massive success together on the court.

“We won regionals, it is the most important tournament in Texas,” Rodriguez said. “We were number six in the country, but we are now, I think, number 18.”

The men’s tennis team is relatively young, with Rodriguez being the only senior. However, the sky’s the limit for these talented athletes as they continue to push themselves and UTSA’s ranking. Head coach Sergey Avdeyev feels that ranking among the top 50 was only a matter of time.

“Whatever success we are having is basically the groundwork,” Avdeyev said. “We put the last three years, and Sebastian, like he said, we always had [that] caliber in terms of players. We were just always a little short in terms of ranking.”

The hard work of the players and coaches in the tennis program is finally paying off, and with UTSA defeating Texas A&M this past weekend, it truly seems that the team has no intention of stopping its journey through the national ranks.

The start of the spring semester has brought on more matches for UTSA tennis. The ‘Runners will try to continue their win streak with an upcoming match at the UTSA Tennis Center against ODU on March 9.

By Luke Lawhorn Sports Editor

The coaching environment Thompson, Henson and assistant coaches Mike Peck and Adam Hood bring helps build up seniors like Germany and Czumbel and motivate them to stay at the university.

“We have a good coaching staff, and I imagine that they will do a good job recruiting the right players to fit this program,” Germany said. “They are big on bringing in good people. That’s half the game right there, practicing with people you want to be around all day with. I’ve seen Erik the last four years of my life every single day. He’s one of my best friends, and if they can recruit people like that, then they will definitely have a shot.”

“Those two guys in particular [Czumbel and Germany] have just been terrific teammates and terrific members of this program,” Henson said.

“They’ve been here for four years,” Henson said. “They are loved by their teammates, and they’ve had a huge impact on the program. “The record books will be all over [Germany] with statistics, and Erik was the ultimate teammate. He’s [Czumbel] been on the starting lineup his whole career. That guy would just do anything we asked of him; he played four different positions for us, [and] all he cared about was helping his team. I’ll miss those two a lot.”

Before the fall season, Henson came up with an acronym for process, accountability, consistency and excellence — PACE. He wanted his players to utilize it to help keep their spirits high and remind them to maintain good teamwork.

“The P in PACE is trusting the process, and that message has continued to be hammered home all year long, and they definitely did that,” Henson said. “On the court, they wanted to be held accountable, and they wanted to be challenged every day, so those two things were terrific.”

“Consistency, we may not have gotten an A in that category, and with the results, it’s hard to say that we were excellent, but I think trusting the process was outstanding. There are good leaders in that locker room,” Henson said.

Despite the season not having the outcome that the team or UTSA would have liked to see, Germany and Henson were very hopeful for the team’s future and in high spirits after their win.

“We didn’t like the results this season, but I love this team, I love the players, I love the way they handle the losses,” Henson said. “We try to keep our guys engaged, try to keep practicing in the right way, try to keep their spirits up. We’ve done that, and we’re not done yet.”

Germany had some parting wisdom to share with the underclassmen entering March Madness for the first time, and that was to “be ready for that jump” and made one last comment to his team; “thank you for the last four years.”