It All Comes Down To This

A 6-3 lost to Castleton dropped the Hornets to fifth in the North Atlantic Conference standings, with a 1-2 record in conference games. That leaves only two conferences games left to play in the season. To make the playoffs, the Hornets must finish in the top-four of NAC, meaning that they must win both a previously postponed match against Colby-Sawyer, and a match against Thomas.

Freshman John Corey, who is currently the team's number-three seed, realizes what is on the line in these two matches.

 "In the beginning of the season, we had the idea that we were going to pound through these teams," Corey said. "Now that we have that reality check... we got to buckle down more. It's going to be tougher to pull through because Thomas and Colby-Sawyer are very tough teams."

One solution that Corey offers: practices with teammates who are close in tennis ability.

"You can only get better by playing people that are just as good as you," Corey said. "If I'm playing with someone who's playing six, yeah that person's going to get better, but there's not much of a benefit for me."

Corey certainly could use some of that experience after a tough singles match against Castleton's Matt Trombley, which resulted in Trombley being victorious in two sets, both by a margin of 6-1.

Corey felt that he was thinking too much during the match.

"Way too early I got into my head, and started to psych myself out, saying 'You can beat them,' Corey said. "But every time I lose a point I'd be like 'Oh, you're just going to lose."

Those kinds of mistakes cannot be repeated against Colby-Sawyer or Thomas. Corey feels that the team's play against previous conference opponents like Johnson and Castleton can perhaps lead to success.

"Even though the scores don't look close (against Johnson and Castleton), the game scores were actually really close to those two teams," Corey said. "Both are definitely very beatable."

Matches against Colby-Sawyer and Thomas are both on the road and back-to-back. First, the Hornets travel to finish their match against Colby-Sawyer on Friday for a 2:00 p.m. start time. The following day, the team will travel to Thomas for a match at 2:00 p.m. as well, with the season very much on the line.