Chelsea Gubbels | Staff Writer

The Buena Vista University (BVU) men’s tennis team wrapped up their 2013-2014 season this last weekend at the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) tournament at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The Beavers are coached by Richard Halverson, who has now completed his first year as head coach. Now that he’s had a year to feel it out, he’s ready to help the team get ready for their fall season.

“Now that I’ve had a year to see what the competition is like at this level, I have a better idea of where each team needs to be when next season starts. Until then, I will be working on the finer details so when everyone returns in the fall, I am able to best help them succeed,” Halverson said.

Coach Halverson also noted that one of the biggest things they will be working on to bring their game to the next level is consistency.

“Consistency is the biggest thing moving forward. We had a lot of individual matches this year where we challenged and defeated teams ahead of us in the rankings, but we could never seem to all click on the same day. By working to improve this each day in practice, we should expect our results to continue to improve as well,” Halverson said.

Junior captain Kyle Weeden also said that consistency could be improved, but is proud of his team for the effort they put forth this year.

“The effort was usually there in practice this year. If everyone is having fun while playing, it’s going to make you want to get better as a team and I feel like that’s the sort of attitude we had this year,” Weeden said.

When asked what their proudest moment of this season was, their thriller match against Morningside was noted. They were down early in the match and four of the six singles matches but ended up going into tiebreakers. The Beavers ended up winning the match 5-4.

“For us to come back and sneak out four of the six singles matches in super tiebreakers to win 5-4 was really exciting and was a complete team win and a great way to end their regular season,” said Halverson.

Although they had hoped for a better turn out at their appearance in the conference tournament, they know there is a lot of room for improvement. They lost Friday to Central College 5-0 and Simpson 5-3 on Saturday earning 6th place in the conference. The Beavers ended their season 5-12 overall and 3-5 in conference play.

Photo by Stephanie Steiner