Senior Luke Elifson redeemed his loss at one doubles with a decisive win at one singles to help the St. Thomas men’s tennis team defeat Bethel 5-4 at St. Paul Academy Sunday afternoon.
A rocky start to doubles held St.Thomas (13-1) back early in Sunday’s match against Bethel (15-5), but quick wins at four, five and six singles kept the Tommies alive.
“Bethel came out and played really strong doubles from the get-go, and we were playing from behind at one and two doubles from the first games,” head coach Terry Peck said.
Elifson and doubles partner Junior Martin Beck lost 2-8 to Bethel’s one doubles Matt Schull and Hunter Fernelius. Elifson and Beck immediately had to switch their focus and begin their singles matches.
“You just have to reset and think mostly about your teammates and not yourself,” Elifson said.
Eager to redeem his loss, Beck smoothly won his four singles 6-3 and 6-3 to defeat Bethel’s Jakob Bartels.
Elifson fought aggressively to defeat Schull 10-8 in a super-tiebreaker to win the match and defeat the Royals.
“The focus was definitely on the team, everyone picked up the slack and it felt good to win for the team,” Elifson said.
The men’s tennis team will be graduating five seniors who have played a large part in the team’s success.
“Since freshman year I’ve watched them grow quite a bit and the biggest thing is they are very close with each other and they have been so great to all the younger players on the team,” Peck said.
Next weekend the Tommies will face nationally ranked Gustavus and Carleton to conclude regular season play.
“I’m really happy where we’re at now, we are 13-1 and we are in a great position and I’m really proud of the team,” Peck said.
Lauren Knisley can be reached at knis1243@stthomas.edu.