Men’s tennis team volleys through season

The Elmhurst University men’s tennis team is looking to make a statement this year after making some much needed changes during the off-season.

The Bluejays had three competitions during their fall season. While the start of the season at Carthage on Sept. 10 was canceled due to rain, the team showed what they could do in their matches against McHenry County College on Sept. 13 and Concordia University Chicago on Sept. 29.

The fall season ended back in September with the team going 2-0, with a 7-2 win against McHenry and a 6-3 win against Concordia under new head coach Mark Cunnington.

With the women’s team ending their fall season in October, there has been some obvious improvement with the new coaching. 

Cunnington has coached the EU women’s tennis team since 2019. He took over the men’s squad in August of 2021, becoming Elmhurst University’s Director of Tennis. It seems the team has gotten used to the new coaching and their training has paid off.

Last year, the Bluejays’ finished the season with a record of 7-10 and a 1-6 in conference. The team improvements can already be seen by the returning members.

Senior Brandon Fulmer and junior Ben Cavka are players to watch when the spring season starts. They went undefeated as a doubles team in the fall season, and Cavka remains unbeaten in his singles matches as well. 

Against McHenry, Fulmer and Cavka won 8-2 in their doubles match, and Cavka had a 6-0, 6-1 win against Lion Riley Ellegood. 

Fulmer had a close match, losing in the third set, but he came back against Concordia with a 6-0, 6-2 win in the singles and a 8-0 win in the doubles with Cavka, who also won his singles match with a 0-6, 6-1 score.

They came off of successful seasons last year. Fulmer finished with a 9-7 record in singles and a 4-11 record in doubles matches and Cavka finished with a 10-7 record in singles and 7-10 record in doubles matches last season.

With Fulmer and Cavka now a doubles team this season, we’ll see how their records improve.

Other returners are sophomore Russel Reyes, sophomore Yannis Varsamis, and junior Florin Stan.

Reyes went 2-0 in singles and 1-1 in doubles during the season, from a 6-10 and 4-11 record last year. Varsamis was 2-0 and 0-1 in the fall season and was 2-9 and 3-9 last year. 

Stan has not yet competed this year, but went 4-2 in singles and 3-3 in doubles last year before having to retire the season after a match against University of Illinois Chicago.

The new players this year are freshmen Lukas Cepronas, who went 2-0 and 1-0, and Adrian Songco, who had a 1-1 and 0-1 record for the fall season.

The Bluejays’ are currently ranked 6th in the CCIW standings. After a very successful fall season, they look to prove a point to the conference and rest of the nation come spring.

Photo provided by- Elmhurst University Athletics