BJ Appel
Guest Reporter
The men’s tennis team finished fourth in the
Appalachian Athletic Conference tournament this past weekend at Liberty Bell,
finishing their season at 5-8.
“We finished where we should have,” coach Rich Aubrey said, “we will continue to
improve and will be back next season.”
The Buffs finished with a total of 6 points in the tournament, behind Virginia
Intermont, Tennessee Wesleyan and King with 26, 12 and 9 points, respectively.
“This season was the best we have had in recent years,” said junior Pat
Mitchell. “We won the matches we were supposed to and we competed better against
King, VI, and Tennessee Wesleyan.”
Each of the singles players seemed to get caught in a rut in the second round,
unable to advance into the semifinals. No. 1 singles player freshman Tom Jones
manhandled his first round opponent 6-2, 6-0, but stumbled in the next round
losing 0-6, 0-6. His teammates, no. 2 freshman Ryan Reynolds, no. 3 Mitchell,
no. 4 senior Adam Campbell, no. 5 junior Adam Diewert and no. 6 freshman Jon
Toler, all had the same difficulties in the second round after coming off
effortless matches in the first.
The no. 1 doubles tandem of Jones and Reynolds were the only Milligan pair to
make their way out of the first round, but they were defeated by Tennessee
Wesleyan 4-6, 4-6; no. 2 doubles team of Campbell and Mitchell lost to Virginia
Intermont 2-6, 1-6; and the no. 3 pair of Diewert and Dyer were beaten 0-6, 1-6.
“With some off season recruiting, hard work, we will only get better,” Aubrey
said, “I’m proud of the guys, they easily defeated schools that were a challenge
to us last year and gave the talented schools a run for their money.”
To put an exclamation point on the season, Jones was named to the All-Conference
team and Mitchell was appointed to the Academic All-Conference along with the
All-Sportsman teams.