By John Syms, Staff Writer
Originally Published April 23, 2024
On Sunday, April 7, the Saint Vincent College (SVC) men’s tennis team pulled off their tenth win of the season against Westminster College with a score of 8-1. Since then, their progress has been mostly positive. As of Saturday, April 20, the Bearcats have won five games in the President Athletic Conference (PAC) and lost three conference matches. Their conference losses were against Grove City College, Geneva College, and Allegheny College. Allegheny was ranked number one in the PAC Men’s Tennis preseason poll.
Last year, the Gators managed to win the conference championship for the first time since returning to the PAC. During the 2022-23 Men’s Tennis season, the Bearcats ended their regular season with an overall record of 10-7, and a conference record of 6-2. They were the third seed in the PAC playoffs and won a tournament against the sixth-seeded Westminster Titans. In the tournament's semifinals, the Bearcats lost to second-seeded Grove City College, with a score of 5-0.
In the 2023-24 season, SVC won’t play against Grove City until April 18, and they have four more conference matches left. The Bearcats were ranked fourth in the preseason polls, and as of April 11, they are third in the PAC standings. This season, SVC has won ten out of one away games and three out of six home games played.
Head Coach Brian Niemiec will be coaching the men’s team for the seventh time in his career and thinks the season has been decent so far.
“We have some great wins under our belt and have been able to bounce back from any bumps we've hit thus far, and we still have plenty of tennis in front of us, and we're hoping to keep up the momentum we have now while finishing out the season.”
Niemiec has never missed the playoffs as the coach, but he has never won the PAC title. Niemiec has led his team to one conference championship match, as SVC made it to the PAC championship during the 2021-22 season but lost to the Grove City Wolverines with a score of 5-1.
The head coach strongly believed his squad would make the conference tournament, but he didn’t want to overlook the remainder of the schedule.
According to Niemiec, the men’s tennis program is looking good for the future, as the team is filled with so much young talent.
“We have a really solid core of young players; four of our eight starters are freshmen, so our future is looking bright. We also aren't going to lose any of our starters to graduation this year, so our doubles teams will have a whole year together under their belt coming back next year, and all of our starters will have at least one year of college experience on their resumes next year which is a rare thing at our level.”
Six teams made the PAC tournament, and SVC competed in the first round of the PAC tournament on Monday, April 22.
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