Men’s tennis closes out spring with lofty goals

With the West Coast Conference Tournament approaching in two weeks, the Gonzaga men's tennis team is working toward overcoming obstacles, disciplining themselves to finish higher in the conference. 

After finishing seventh of eight teams the past two seasons, the Zags are ready to move up the ranks.  Last season they finished with a record of 10-15 and went 1-2 in the WCC Tournament.  Coming off some tough losses in the past weeks to Santa Clara and St. Mary's, the Zags have upcoming matches against Northern Arizona, Lewis-Clark State and Seattle waiting for them next week. 

Senior Roman Dojcak is playing No. 1 for the Zags this season and has provided moral boost and leadership.  Assistant Coach Marco Antonio Pineda said that Roman "has the best record on the team, is a great student-athlete and has the best overall career at Gonzaga."

"Roman has really stepped it up this year as our senior leader," Sullivan said.  "He has been putting a lot of effort in at practice which has given him a lot of big wins this season."
With two all-conference selections under his belt, Dojcak is carrying the team and putting a lot of pressure on the top players in conference to perform. 

"He is an ideal-student athlete," Pineda said.  "Academics are his priority and he has excelled in the classroom, and his playing career at Gonzaga is something future Zag players should strive for. He has set the bar high."

While Dojcak is a singles force for the team, junior Conor Feenney and sophomore Jake Davis "have proved themselves throughout the season as our most consistent doubles team," sophomore Scott Sullivan said.  "Their aggressiveness and communication as a team make them our most dependable pair."

According to Sullivan, Head Coach Peter MacDonald "has been putting a large emphasis on our doubles play, and because every match begins with doubles the early wins give us a lot of momentum going into singles."

"I think that the rest of the team and I would love to see us finish top five in the WCC Tournament" Sullivan said.  "If we push ourselves hard enough I can definitely see it happening."

The team has had to endure conditions that many other programs in the conference are not faced with — the weather and the lack of its own tennis facility.  Some schools have their own courts — indoor and outdoors— while the Bulldogs remain tennis nomads, switching between Spokane Racquet Club and Gonzaga Prep High School.  Because of this issue, practice times have to work around the schedules of the Gonzaga Prep teams and the Racquet Club members, leaving the team practicing from 9:30-11 p.m. 

"Not having courts on campus definitely makes things difficult for us," Sullivan said.  "It limits our practice time and it isn't very convenient to have to drive to practice every day. At the same time, I think we all cope with it pretty well and make it work."

The team feels they can finish higher than seventh this year.  Dojack says the work ethic of the team has improved over this past season, and that "guys are very serious about the program and do their best to give it all they have."

"We just need to focus on imposing our own game in every match. We are good enough that we can be successful within this strong conference," Dojcak said.  "We also need to enter every match with a clean state of mind, regardless of our past matches against these teams, knowing the past counts for nothing, it's only the present moment that has any worth."

"Our conference is much tougher than last year but everyone on the team believes they can win," Davis said.

Davis said the discipline that Coach MacDonald stresses on the court has brought the team closer together. 

"Coach MacDonald's biggest focus while I have been here is to create a disciplined team that can compete within our conference," Davis said.  "We are having tougher practices and more opportunities to practice, and our team is showing more disciplined behavior on the court."

"We need to finish strong with out last four matches" Pineda said.  "Historically teams in the past years always play strong at the end so taking good strides at practice leads to wins."
"This young team has not hit their potential yet, and it's not too late," Pineda said.