Steve Wilson
The 2004-05 Wittenberg University men's and women's tennis teams are off and running in the "spring" portion of the schedule. Spring is in quotes because the weather outside has hardly cooperated, keeping the Tiger teams practicing indoors and playing their first matches in the forced air as well.
The Tiger men defeated Otterbein on Feb. 5 by a 5-2 count as junior Shane Hutton (Charleston, W.Va./Catholic), juniorSteve Wilson (Springfield, Ohio/Shawnee) and senior Ben Burkam (Delaware, Ohio/Hayes) all captured wins in both singles and doubles.
On Feb. 27, the Tigers dropped a 7-0 decision to North Coast Athletic Conference rival Oberlin. The good news is that the match does not count toward the conference standings since men's tennis is broken into east and west divisions. Oberlin is in the NCAC East, which appears to be very strong again in 2005, while Wittenberg is in the NCAC West with Wabash, Earlham, Ohio Wesleyan and Denison.
The teams now head to Orlando, Fla. for four matches apiece between Sunday and Wednesday. Then it's off to the coast for some rest and relaxation before heading home and, hopefully, getting onto the Georgiana Albright Tennis Complex courts and true "spring" tennis in Ohio.