Tennis Info:
2006 Elizabethtown College
Men's Tennis Preview
Elizabethtown enters the 2006 season as the defending Commonwealth Conference champion. However, this is a very different team from the group that won the program’s first-ever conference title last year. Only three players return from the 2005 team, and only one of them played in any singles matches last year. The Blue Jays have graduated three seniors and have seen the departure of three foreign students from the 2005 squad – that team’s entire top six for the majority of the season.
To say that the 2006 Blue Jays are young is an understatement – Elizabethtown’s three sophomores are the only players on the team with any collegiate experience. There are no juniors and no seniors this year. To this group, Elizabethtown has added five newcomers. Needless to say, it is difficult to tell exactly how this team will do until the Commonwealth Conference season gets underway. As is usual for the Blue Jays’ schedule, the team will undergo a rough first few matches in Hilton Head, SC over Spring Break while playing against some very strong out-of-region competition.
Among the returning Blue Jays, sophomore Joe Santoro (West Chester, PA/West Chester East) went 1-2 at number six singles and 2-0 at number three doubles last year. Sophomore Taylor Butch (Great Falls, VA/Flint Hill School) went 2-2 at number three doubles last year, and sophomore Ryan Zimmerman (Duncannon, PA/Susquenita) went 0-2 at number three doubles in 2005.
The five newcomers are: Zachary Atkinson (Willow Street, PA), Jeff Kirkhoff (Duncannon, PA), Per Roxendal (Zurich, Switzerland/Literargymnasium Ramibuhl), Hiep Pham (Harrisburg, PA/Central Dauphin East) and Nick Ziobrowski (Chambersburg, PA).
Atkinson paired with Santoro in the October 2005 Elizabethtown Invitational and went 2-1 in doubles. Also at the Etown Invitational, Roxendal and Kirkhoff paired up and went 1-1 in doubles, and Roxendal went 1-2 in singles as well. Pham went 1-1 at the Elizabethtown Invitational in singles matches.
How quickly this young team adjusts to the collegiate game and how well it deals with adversity will be keys to the Blue Jays’ success in 2006.
