Tennis Team Looking to Ace the NAC

The hardest thing for Lyndon State College's men's tennis team is trying not to stay complacent this season.

Last year, the team finished third five teams in the North Atlantic Conference standings. NAC coaches participated in a poll for this season, and their average voting rounded out to the Hornets finishing fourth in the conference. Two major reasons why the chips are stackedagainst the team are because of the Hornets' finish last season, and the addition of Colby-Sawyer to the NAC.

Junior Tyler Schofield is not too happy with what the coaches had to say.

"I don't look too much into that (pre-ranking teams), because they have us fourth, and I know we have the ability to finish much higher than that," Schofield said.

Colby-Sawyer is certainly a daunting team, one that strikes fear into the NAC because of an immense amount of talent.

However, Schofield is happy to see Colby-Sawyer join the party.

"I'm excited because it's better people (from Colby-Sawyer) I get to play. I know it's all about winning and what not, but I really enjoy the competition of it," Schofield said.

Another one of the reasons why most of the coaches were voting off the Hornets was because they were bounced in the semifinals against Johnson State College.

Despite where the team may have placed, head coach Geoff Davison believes that numbers can lie.

"At the end, I thought we were at least one place better than that," Davison said.

As for this season, the Hornets are very top-heavy, yet it is the players that are projected to seed four through six that present intriguing options.

"We've got the luxury of competition within the squad to sort out who's the solid two, three, four, or one, five, or whatever it is," Davison said.

Most of the projected four through six seeds are underclassmen, and that is something that junior Mike Howard likes.

"They (the underclassmen) definitely want to be on the tennis team. They're not sitting there saying 'I don't want to go to practice today, I don't want to do this, I don't want to do that,'" Howard said.

Schofield, meanwhile, wants the freshmen to learn what he learned: how to think as a team player.

"We are pretty inexperienced, but they'll (the freshmen) learn throughout the season what they'll have to do win games, and hopefully they'll learn like I learned when I was a freshman. I went 11-0, but it meant nothing... we didn't win a championship," Schofield said.

The freshmen are certainly stepping in on an opportune time, as the perception is that long-time rival Castleton may have lost a step.

"There's a lot of optimism around the place, a lot of strength within the team," Davison said.

Howard is the one of the few upperclassmen that helps fuel the rivalry against Castleton, seeing the Hornets as perhaps better.

"Personally, I don't like Castleton... I see the rivalry as, not to kind of rub it in their face, but as Lyndon State kind of coming up again," Howard said.

If the Hornets are going to return to form, Howard will need to step up his game. He was 4-5 in singles play as the number-one seed last year. His motivation to get better: a former number-one seed from LSC, Teddy Fournier.

"Looking at him (Fournier) made me want to do more... I'd see him hit a great shot in practice, and I'd say to myself 'Man, I want to hit that great shot. I want to be as fast as him. You know, I want to last two hours in the match... I want to have his game,'" Howard said.

Like Fournier was, Howard is now the leader of he team, a role he embraces.

"You're kind of a leader to everyone from what it seems, whether you're in the locker room or on the court," Howard said.

The Hornets need Howard and others to step up their game to reach the goal of winning the NAC Championship.

Schofield is not backing down on having these lofty goals.

"I can't set my sights any lower than a NAC championship... I know I have it in me, I know they (the other players) all have it in them," Schofield said.

The road to a possible NAC title starts this at Wednesday 4 p.m., when the Hornets travel to Norwich University.