2014-15 Schedule
Season Preview Video

DETROIT (1/12/2015) -- The University of Detroit Mercy men's tennis team will begin the spring championship season this week with three matches – including its home opener against Toledo on Sunday.
 
Detroit will begin play on Thursday as it visits Western Michigan followed by a Saturday road match at Ball State. The Titans will then return home to face the Rockets on Sunday at 6:00 p.m., at the Franklin Athletic Club in Southfield.
 
UDM played a light schedule in the fall with just two events, but one was the highly competitive ITA Midwest Regional Championships. Detroit was 3-16 last season and 0-6 in the Horizon League, but that was with a team that featured mostly underclassmen and while the red, white and blue are still young, that experience should bold well for the program this season and into the future.
 
"I have a great feeling going into this season," said sixth-year head coach Grant Asher. "We have a great group of guys, a good core, coming back and they are working really hard. We lost a lot of close matches last year. It was a little bit of a rebuilding year last season and the guys gained a lot of experience and they will be mentally stronger."
 
Detroit has six netters back from last season, including a talented sophomore class. Combine that with three upperclassmen and two newcomers and the Titans have a group of student-athletes that are poised to get this program back to competing for a spot at the Horizon League Championship.
 
"Last year we were just young and a little inexperienced and we were physically smaller compared to other schools being so young. "We lost a lot of close matches and I think to be successful in athletics, you need to bring an energy level to every match and focus because all these teams are really all so close and other teams just did that better than us last year," said Coach Asher.
 
Senior Jay Joshi and juniors Tanguy Crosnier and Rafael Orantes will be back to lead the team.
 
Joshi is a strong doubles player who has great size on the court and played a lot of his singles matches at No. 2 last season, finishing with four wins and a conference victory. Crosnier is one of the hardest workers on the squad, and while he hasn't played a lot, his effort in practice has helped the Titans prepare for all of their opponents. Orantes tied for the team lead with 11 singles victories last season at the No. 3 and 4 spot, and posted an 8-3 mark in the fall.
 
"Jay is our lone senior and this is his moment to rise and take control of the team and show them what he has learned over the last three and a half year," said Coach Asher. "Rafael has had a lot of success and I am hoping he can continue to win and elevate his position. Tanguy is someone we depend on to come to practice every day and help this team improve and his game has continued to get better."
 
The sophomore class is comprised of Chance Conley, Ismail Kadyrov and Patryk Koscielski. Koscielski made the biggest impact last year as a rookie tying for the team lead with 11 singles wins and topping the squad with 17 overall victories. He was 6-2 in the fall and four of those wins came in the ITA Midwest Regional Championships, where he advanced in the main draw.
 
"Patryk is one of our leaders coming into this season. He made the ITA Main Draw last year and again this year, and he put us on the map and the guys gained confidence from that through him," added Coach Asher.
 
Conley dealt with some injuries as a freshman, but he started at No. 5 and No. 6 and tallied three wins, while Kadyrov posted 10 victories as a freshman and was 4-1 in the fall.
 
"Chance and Ismail were a little green and with it being a long season they kind of hit a wall, but they know what to expect now," said Coach Asher. "Chance had an unbelievable fall and has worked hard both physically and mentally and he came back a completely different player. Ismail is a strong kid with a big serve and he is a big fighter and I am looking for a lot out of him."
 
The two newcomers to the team have some experience as well in sophomore Kacper Stelmaszak and freshman Nathan Ponton. Stelmaszak played a lot as a freshman at Portland State last season and went 6-1 in the fall, while Ponton was a budding star in the Australian junior leagues and totaled a 4-3 record in the fall campaign.
 
"Kacper and Nathan are two guys with international experience and there is no substitute for experience," said Coach Asher. "Kacper is a transfer student from Portland State and Nathan is a big kid with a lot of match play experience."
 
The Titans will have a challenging schedule in the duel season playing Michigan State twice – including once at home – and matches against Western Michigan, Ball State, Toledo, and Northwestern as well as the grueling Horizon League slate.