As the Terrapin men’s tennis team entered singles play down 1-0 to No. 25 Florida State yesterday, it seemed like there was potential for an upset at the Tennis Center at College Park.
Early, the Terps seemed they might hold their own in doubles against a superior Seminoles squad. One Terps’ pairing snatched victory from Florida State, and the two other doubles tandems battled in back-and-forth matches, putting forth performances that belied the Terps’ unranked standing.
But as has been so often the case for the team this season, the Terps’ inadequacies caught up with them. The Terps dropped their eighth straight conference match, falling 6-1 to the Seminoles (13-6, 6-3 ACC).
“It was a good day in the sense that the guys were really positive,” coach Kyle Spencer said. “They competed their asses off.”
Yesterday’s performance stood in marked contrast to Friday’s 6-1 loss to No. 50 Miami (8-10, 2-6), where the Terps (13-10, 1-8) came out flat in a match that appeared winnable on paper.
“We didn’t play well on Friday, and we needed to play well,” Spencer said. “I was disappointed that we couldn’t handle the situation better.”
Even after the team’s sub-par performance Friday, Spencer lauded the team for coming into yesterday’s match with its usual youthful energy back.
“We had the energy [yesterday], an energy that we just didn’t have on Friday,” Spencer said. “We really fought hard.”
Freshman Jesse Kiuru was the lone Terp winner yesterday. His win at No. 4 singles broke his seven-match losing streak in singles.
“That was an impressive win for Kiuru,” Spencer said of Kiuru’s 6-2, 0-6, 6-2 victory over the Seminoles’ Andres Bucaro. “He’s been working really hard. It was nice to see.”
The Terps’ ongoing eight-match skid came on the heels of the program’s best start since 1986. Of these eight losses, however, none have come against a team ranked outside of the top 50.
“It never gets easy in the ACC,” Spencer said.
The Terrapin women’s tennis team can understand Spencer’s sentiment. They fell to 0-9 in conference play after this weekend’s road matches against No. 10 Miami (16-3, 9-0 ACC) and No. 13 Florida State (12-7, 6-2). Each match ended 7-0, marking the sixth consecutive conference match in which the Terps (3-11, 0-9) have been swept.
“As the scores would suggest, the other teams were significantly better than us,” coach Howard Joffe said. “But the kids still continued to fight hard.
“My angst is that we continue to avoid discouragement,” added Joffe, whose Terps faced their fifth and sixth consecutive nationally ranked opponents this weekend. “It ain’t easy getting beat every day, and I just really hope that there is no discouragement going into this week.”
The Terps received a solid performance yesterday from senior Maggie MacKeever, who forced the Seminoles’ Lauren McCreless to a third set, before falling 1-0 (10-3) in the deciding set. McCreless, who helped Florida State to its sixth straight victory, is the No. 20 singles player in the nation.
“Nobody wants to know which team is playing the hardest, they want to know who’s winning,” Joffe said. “But the girls are trying very hard and getting better.”
TERP NOTE: The Terp women will play host to Richmond on April 17, in a previously unscheduled match.
cwalsh@umdbk.com
