The Waynesburg University men’s tennis team opened up their brief portion of the fall season against conference rival Saint Vincent in a home match on Thursday, Oct. 3 , where Waynesburg would fall 6-1 to the Bearcats. Waynesburg falls to 0-1 on the season, while Saint Vincent now improves to 3-0.

     For the yellow Jackets, their point came off the racket of junior Thomas Torcase, who snagged a tie breaker win in sixth singles. Randy Pettit, who serves as the head coach for the team, spoke on Torcaso’s consistency, and is certain that this win is just a stepping stone in the season he expects him to have.

    “Thomas plays a very consistent match.  His style of play can be frustrating to some of his opponents, but he never gets too high or too low,” Pettit said, continuing on how he is looking forward to having this just be the beginning for Torcaso this season. “I am looking forward to him being able to build off a good win.”

     Sophomore Tyler Gordon, who was one of the other two Jackets to win games in their respective sets of singles competition, continued on Pettit’s adulation, even giving Torcaso a nickname he hopes will stick throughout the fall and spring seasons. 

     “We’re ecstatic and thankful that Thomas won his match. The spin master was definitely underestimated,” Gordon said. 

     As far as the Jackets go, their season will primarily take place in the spring, as their lone remaining match this fall will come on Wednesday, Oct. 16 when they travel to Mount Aloysius for a non-conference match. With one opportunity left to get some material to work on for the spring Pettit seems to be keeping things simple for what he emphasized as a young team. 

     “We will work on some of the mistakes from last night and continue to tighten some things up,” Pettit said. “We have a lot of young guys that don’t have experience facing college competition, so we will continue to work on technique and as much play as we can.”

     Gordon also has some facets to his game he will be using the layoff following Mount Aloysius to build up on. 

     “I will work on my serving the most. It will be faster, much more consistent too. My net game will be much better,” Gordon said, while adding on some goals he has regarding his role on the team as well. “For the team, I will work on my confidence as a player, and a better teammate for doubles.”