Kyle Auffert | Staff Writer

The Buena Vista University (BVU) men’s tennis team concluded their record-breaking season this past weekend at the IIAC Championships by taking fifth place overall, their highest finish since the 1997 season.

“Our goal was to make the team tournament for the first time in ‘many’ years and we did, finishing fifth for the first time since 1997. Another goal was to finish above .500 in wins which we did,” Head Men’s and Women’s Tennis Coach Kevin McCadams said.

The Beavers started off the tournament on Friday facing off against Wartburg College. The Knights came out strong and swept doubles to take an early 3-0 lead. From there, the Beavers were unable to recover from the early stumble and lost two more single matches to lose the match 5-0.

“After the sweep in doubles, it’s hard to come back in singles in any match, let alone a tournament with added pressure,” junior Adam Gustad said.

The Beavers didn’t dwell on their loss long as they turned their fortunes around on Saturday against the University of Dubuque. This time the Beavers were the one putting the pressure on early as they jumped to a commanding 3-0 lead sweeping doubles including a thrilling 9-8 (9-7) win by the duo of Gustad and sophomore Kyle Shade. From there, the Beavers never looked back and capped off the win with two singles wins by seniors Jason Ehrhardt and Cole Renken to finish off the Spartans 5-0.

“Against University of Dubuque, we were a different team. We came out with a great start with a much better energy level that the previous match. The really took the net away from them in doubles and our singles played smart, controllable tennis, McCadams said.

After their loss on Friday, this win was big for the team according to senior team member Christian Price.

“We ended the tournament on such a high note against Dubuque which helped make the weekend more satisfying,” Price said.

The Beavers finished the season with a record of 10-7 (5-3 IIAC), compiling the most wins in a season as a team since 1997.

Price had high praise for McCadams and attributed the team’s success to him.

“Expectations were high; he was very enthusiastic about how good we could be. When the team started to notice this, we all made a goal for this season to be one of the most successful ones Coach McCadams has had here,” Price said.

The Beavers did just that by helping McCadams to his best single-season record during his time here at BVU.

Graphic by Keyla Sosa