2008 Woodie Awards
High Hopes for Talented Tennis Team
Lack of Manpower Can't Deter Macs
Akiva Weinerkur
Issue date: 3/29/05 Section: Sports
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Yeshiva University's most successful team does not play in the Max Stern Athletic Center. They don't even play in New York. With its home matches taking place at the Binghamton Racquet Club in Fort Wayne, New Jersey, the Yeshiva tennis team has never had so much as a single student attend their matches, but that hasn't stopped them from rolling over their opponents this season.
The Macs, led by Coach Jon Bandler, opened up the season with relative ease; they defeated Skyline Conference opponent SUNY Maritime without any player dropping a set. Division III tennis consists of 6 best-of-three singles matches counting for one point each, and three doubles matches of which the team that wins the majority earns the point.
As easy as the season opener was, St. Joseph's, the Macs second opponent of the season, practically made Maritime look like a Davis Cup squad. Not a single match was close, with several players even recording double bagel (6-0, 6-0) victories.
The March 20 match against Polytechnic was another walkover, with the Macs cutting down the Fighting Blue Jays so badly, that a player on Polytechnic sheepishly admitted to his opponent, Yoni Garber, YC '06, that it was the first competitive match of tennis he had ever played in his life.
The team's primary obstacle is generally to find players who are willing to show up at every match, particularly the ones that fall out on weekdays, a problem which has necessitated carrying 16 players, while most of its opponents feature half that number to fill the six spots needed to play. The oversized squad includes four captains: Evan Small, Steven Farbman, Binyomin Harbor and Dani Nyer.
Attendance issues have seemingly forever plagued the tennis squad, as the team's incredible 40 match win streak came to an end in 1999, not by being outclassed, but having a dearth of starting players show up to a match.
Another obstacle for the team is the lack of practice during the season, as practices are held throughout the winter on Sundays, but those are replaced with games once the season gets underway.
The Macs, led by Coach Jon Bandler, opened up the season with relative ease; they defeated Skyline Conference opponent SUNY Maritime without any player dropping a set. Division III tennis consists of 6 best-of-three singles matches counting for one point each, and three doubles matches of which the team that wins the majority earns the point.
As easy as the season opener was, St. Joseph's, the Macs second opponent of the season, practically made Maritime look like a Davis Cup squad. Not a single match was close, with several players even recording double bagel (6-0, 6-0) victories.
The March 20 match against Polytechnic was another walkover, with the Macs cutting down the Fighting Blue Jays so badly, that a player on Polytechnic sheepishly admitted to his opponent, Yoni Garber, YC '06, that it was the first competitive match of tennis he had ever played in his life.
The team's primary obstacle is generally to find players who are willing to show up at every match, particularly the ones that fall out on weekdays, a problem which has necessitated carrying 16 players, while most of its opponents feature half that number to fill the six spots needed to play. The oversized squad includes four captains: Evan Small, Steven Farbman, Binyomin Harbor and Dani Nyer.
Attendance issues have seemingly forever plagued the tennis squad, as the team's incredible 40 match win streak came to an end in 1999, not by being outclassed, but having a dearth of starting players show up to a match.
Another obstacle for the team is the lack of practice during the season, as practices are held throughout the winter on Sundays, but those are replaced with games once the season gets underway.