As the fog clears from courts and the sun starts to rise over the hills, the long off season for the NKU men’s tennis team comes to the an end.

Friday September 12th, was the start of the tennis team as they hosted the NKU Invitational hosted at the Joyce Yeager Tennis Complex with IPFW, Lewis, Vincennes, Dayton, and NKU as the teams that competing.

September 12th began the opening rounds of the tournament with single as well as doubles matches. The only matches played on Saturday were finals for singles and semi-finals and finals for doubles.  

The big winner of the day was NKU’s junior Christopher Angulo. Angulo defeated IPFW’s Daniel Cardenas in the finals of Flight B at the invitational winning 6-2, 7-5.

“To win my whole flight felt really good and made me feel very accomplished,” Angulo said. “Since it’s my senior year, I feel more relaxed and was very ready for the start of the tournament.”

Freshman Mate Virag finished in second place of Flight A losing in the finals to Lewis’ Armand Levandi 6-4, 7-5.

For doubles sophomore Jack Carney and Adrian Isache teamed up and lost in the finals of Flight B.

“The coaches thought that we did really well. There was pressure in the beginning we did our best to stay calm and come together,” Isache  said “We enjoyed playing in the finals and representing our team well,” he adds.

The duo had little rest as they played their finals match directly after semi-finals while their opponents had more time to rest.

“We need to stay focused during every match and play every point like it’s our last. We just need to continue working hard,” explains Isache.

The team has been putting in extra time for works while managing their  strenuous course load.

“We have been working really hard for the last 4 weeks to prepare ourselves for the invitational. There have been a lot of long practices making long days, but the team stayed focused on the task at hand,” Maginley said.

The tennis team has practice Monday through Friday from 7a.m. and usually last around an hour and a half. At 9a.m. the team has fitness as well as weight lifting.

“Working on our technique, footwork, as well as endurance has really helped the team to continue to become better and better each day,” explains Maginley.

Up next for the team is the NKU Open at the Joyce Yeager Tennis Complex on October 3rd. After that they have their regional tournament on October 15th. Only 4 guys can enter the singles section and only one team in doubles.

“We have to make sure we continue to work hard every day and work to improve on our skills to be better in our next matches,” Angulo said.