St. Louis U. High tennis is finally back on the courts — although not in the dominant fashion they had hoped. Following the win at CBC last night, the team’s record currently sits at 2-3. Missing players have plagued the varsity squad in its opening games this season, leaving less than ideal results for matches against tough opponents. 

From the first match against Marquette on March 30, it was clear that SLUH tennis was going to face an uphill battle this season. With No. 1 seed junior Gus Tettamble playing in a national tournament out of state and No. 2 seed junior Henry Dowd sitting out due to Covid-19 concerns, sophomore Luke Gund, normally slotted at No. 3, led the team against a deep Marquette roster. 

Excited to show off its work from an entire month of practice, the team started off with high hopes. The match, however, quickly got out of hand, as all three doubles teams lost. Gund and junior Jake Marison played the top doubles match, losing 2-8. The No. 2 doubles team of junior Niko Nadreau and sophomore Josh Lombardi and the No. 3 doubles team of senior Thomas Binek and junior Nathan Rich, were similarly outmatched against Marquette’s varsity, who remained dominant thanks to strong service games. 

Heading into the singles sets, the team looked to be more competitive. However, all of SLUH’s top six players dropped both sets quickly except for Nadreau, playing at No. 4 singles. After a difficult first set, which he lost 2-6, Nadreau rallied back to win the second set 6-4. Unfortunately, SLUH’s only momentum of the night did not carry into the tie-break and Nadreau lost 10-7, completing Marquette’s sweep. 

The loss was disheartening, but Gund still tried to see the positive.

“I think the match was good, we all played well and were getting back into it. I think I was hitting the ball strong and so were my teammates,” Gund said. “This is a good first experience for us though, because we’re a young team. We’re just going to get better from here.”

The very next day, SLUH played Vianney and the results were strikingly different. With Tettamble back in the lineup, varsity players were back playing in more comfortable positions. That, coupled with the small size of Vianney’s team, led to a resounding win for the Jr. Bills. All three doubles matches won handily and in the No. 1 singles match, Tettamble refused to drop a game against Vianney’s No. 1 seed, winning 6-0, 6-0. 

“The match against Vianney was a good rebound win for us, but I still think it would have been a more meaningful first win of the season against a more difficult team,” said Nadreau.

After the two wildly different matches, the team faced a six day break before its next match against another tough opponent, John Burroughs. The varsity squad travelled to the Burroughs courts on April 5 to face a team with the depth to make a run at state this year. Luckily, Tettamble was available but Dowd still remained out. 

The doubles matches quickly proved difficult against a team with strong serves and baseline play. Lombardi and Nadreau lost their No. 2 doubles match 2-8, and Binek and Marison lost No. 3 doubles by the same amount. Gund and Tettamble, who played Burrough’s strong Nos. 1 and 2 seeds, proved more difficult to beat, though, especially late in the set as Tettamble’s powerful serve won an important game to prolong the match. Eventually though, Burroughs wore down SLUH’s top seeds and won the set 8-5. 

Already down 0-3 to Burroughs, SLUH tennis envisioned another Marquette style rout, and that would have been the case if not for Tettamble’s strong play in No. 1 singles. Tettamble easily won his first set 6-1, but faced more opposition as the match progressed. He lost 7-5 in a close second set but eventually went on to win the tiebreaker match, giving SLUH its only win of the night and its first win against a significant opponent. The match agains Burroughs was an important sign of the close-knit varsity squad, which rallied behind Tettamble even as his match lasted much longer than the others.

“I think teamwork has been a big part of our season this year, especially as we have been off to a disappointing start. The boys have been playing well with each other for the most part,” said Marison.

Sitting at 1-2, varsity tennis entered its next match on April 6 against Ladue unsure of how to feel about their season so far. This time, the Jr. Bills were once again forced to play up two seeds, as Tettamble suffered a minor wrist injury against Burroughs which kept him out of the match at Ladue. Luckily, Ladue was also missing players due to injury, making it seem like a more even matchup. 

This, however, proved not to be the case as the doubles matches got off to a poor start. Marison and Gund fell behind in No. 1 doubles against Ladue’s top players and lost 0-8. Lombardi and Nadreau faced similar challenges in No. 2 doubles. No. 3 doubles, played by Binek and Rich, began as one of the closest doubles matches all year for SLUH, though. SLUH’s team managed to keep the set close all the way until 4-5 thanks to strong net play and consistent serve returns. However, they failed to hold serve at 4-5 and dropped the rest of the games, losing 4-8. The singles matches were equally difficult, and Ladue went on to win the match 9-0 and drop SLUH’s record to 1-3. 

Most recently, SLUH played CBC on April 15 and won 6-3. Even through the disappointing losses of the last two weeks, head coach Brian Kirk still feels the future is looking up for SLUH tennis this season.

“We’ve had some good practices this week,” Kirk said. “Obviously we’ve had some injuries and people not playing, but we’re starting to get healthy, starting to have a full lineup. Every match is important and we want to continue to do well against everybody, but the regular season isn’t everything for us. We have conference tournaments and district tournaments as well, so we still have a lot of things to look forward to.”

"We have a lot of improvement to do, but it seems doable. I’m excited to continue working,” agreed Marison.