The men’s tennis team was excited for Sunday’s match against the University of Pennsylvania after a convincing 7-0 victory on Thursday against Philadelphia University. While the team was brimming with confidence having won four straight matches to rebound from their 0-8 start to the season, Penn was too much, defeating the Owls, 7-0.
There were matches at the beginning of the season where the Owls felt they played better than the score line would indicate and Coach Steve Mauro felt Sunday’s match fit the description.
“We actually played pretty well,” Mauro said. “All matches were tight.”
Temple dropped the doubles point early which Mauro said he believed set the Owls back into a hole they could never dig out of.
“If we had won the doubles it would have given us some momentum going into singles.” Mauro added.
While Mauro said he felt the team played well, there was no denying the disappointment of Sunday’s loss.
“We were all excited for the match,” Mauro said. “We knew Penn would be a tough match but we’ll rebound and we’ll be fine for the rest of the season. It was disappointing but I tip my hat to Penn.”
Remaining positive was tough at times for Temple during their eight-game losing streak to open the season. But Mauro said he believes after responding well from their early-season struggles, his team will be able to bounce back and put together a strong finish to the season.
“Our mindset is that it’s really not how you start the season, it’s how you finish,” Mauro said.
Greg Frank can be reached at greg.frank@temple.edu or on Twitter @g_frank6.
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