2006 Men's Tennis Preview

The Panther Men’s Tennis Team returns to its second year of NCAA Div III competition.  With a very young team led by sophomore and Co-Captain Matt Kucker of Brooklyn, NY, the team has taken a positive approach to rebuilding the program through hard work and training.  While most of the players have not competed at the collegiate level, the team is learning quickly what it takes to win collegiate matches and have fun doing it. Adding to a very athletic and determined group of freshman, the Panther Men’s Tennis Team is fortunate to have Dan Connor (co-captain) who has played collegiate level tennis and volleyball and understands the importance of team camaraderie even in a sport considered by most to be an individual endeavor.  Equally important we have players with tremendous talent beginning with Freshman Anthony Morano (Yonkers, NY) who plays both #1 singles and doubles. Anthony’s game is complete and continues to improve as he gets used to playing collegiate matches.   He and his doubles partner also a freshman, Chris Arnet (Buffalo, NY) are beginning to work together on the court and become an aggressive and tough team to play against.  At #2 Singles, Matt Kucker provides us with a strong singles play and many different dimensions to his game.  The rest of the singles and doubles line-ups are made up of Freshman who are only now beginning to find their games and execute winning strategies on the court. 

The new coach Peter Nestel, formerly head Men’s and Women’s Tennis Coach at Lawrence University, brings a lot of experience coaching collegiate tennis and a unique and fun approach to fitness and tennis specific conditioning.  This year promises to be successful in many ways.  Coach Nestel does not measure success by wins and losses, but by how well the team plays relative to their abilities and experience.  Winning is great, but it is only part of his mission to build a dominant tennis program at Purchase.  As the new players learn more about tennis skills, strategies and tactics, become fitter and healthier, and have fun in the process then winning will be the result instead of the goal.   Proof of this is Freshman Alex Litzky (Larchmont, NY), Adam Soffer (Woodbridge CT), and Chuck Greenstein (Mahopac, NY) who had never played competitive tennis until this year.  In fact Alex and Chuck really are just learning the game and yet both have won both singles and/or doubles matches in dual match play this year. 

What is most impressive with the team is the attitude and sportsmanship they take on to the court.  We remain one of the newer programs in all of NCAA tennis but approach each match with the confidence and sportsmanship of far more seasoned teams and programs.  The Panthers are very lucky to have 12 outdoor courts, 6 with lights and have been selected as the host site of both the Men’s and Women’s NEAC Championships.  This combined with 4 practice walls, video analysis equipment, state of the art training facilities make Purchase Tennis a great place to build a formidable program.
With incoming tennis prospects be actively recruited for the first time, the future of the program looks better and better.

 2005 Schedule and Results