Tennis Rookies Boost All-Star Squad

Author: Bob Wainwright

Last spring, the Middlebury men's tennis team enjoyed its most successful season ever, culminating in their first trip to nationals and a season-ending national ranking of 12. But from the look of it, this year promises much more.
Joining the team this fall are five first-years, all of whom have accomplished a great deal in their junior careers, and seem to be already well on the way to raising their games to a new level. Predicting the actual singles lineup at this point in time might be an exercise in futility, but one thing is for certain: from top to bottom, this year's team packs a powerful punch.
Among the rookies is Ari Beilin '06 from the Hamilton-Wenham School in Hamilton, Mass. In addition to being a three-year captain for his team there, Beilin was fifth in New England for the 18 and under division. Nate Edmunds '06, who hails from Birmingham, Mich., was a two-year captain at the Cranbrook Kingswood School. Coming in second in the state junior tournament the past three years, Edmunds also recently won the Midwest Open this past month. Brian Waldron '06 comes to Middlebury from Rye High School in New York, where he too was the captain last year. In the east, Waldron was ranked number 3 in the 18 and under division, and was number 41 in the nation, in the 16 and under division. Arriving from the Bolles School in Jacksonville, Fla., Jeff Oldenburg '06 is yet another former team captain on this year's Middlebury squad, a position that he held for three years. The fifth first-year on the team, Matt Rales, hails from the Bullis School in Potomac, Md. And just like the other rookies, Rales arrives as a former number one singles player and team captain. He also holds a top 20 ranking in the Mid-Atlantic region.
As these five first-years join a team that already boasts such strong singles and doubles players as co-captain Steve Hulce '03.5, co-captain Stu Brown '04, Justin Ingoglia '05, Alex Meditz '05, and Andrew Jacobi '05, it would appear as though the ultimate goal of winning a national championship is not so far out of reach.
Right now, however, the squad is duly focused on the tasks at hand, such as the upcoming Middlebury Invitational this weekend, in which the entire team of 16 is set to play. As Meditz explained, "With the addition of five first-years, the team is surely more capable than last year's squad. The question, however, is whether or not we will be able to meet the high expectations that have been set for us."
Coach Dave Schwarz, now in his third year at Middlebury, is always wary of the dangers in being overconfident, and plans to instill in the first-years the same discipline he taught last year's team. Part of Schwarz' theory is that a ball should never bounce twice in practice unless a player tries his hardest and still cannot reach it. Full effort on every ball, no matter what the situation may be, creates the type of hard-nosed mindset that is necessary to win tough matches.
Judging from the intensity of the practices in the past week, it seems that the entire team is prepared to do what it takes to take the program to the next level. Simply put by Ingoglia, "Last year we accomplished a lot. But this year, we're going to do a lot more."