The men’s tennis team will have the opportunity to four-peat as the Colonial States Atheletic Conference Champions this season.

Off the rackets of an incredibly strong senior class, the tennis team has been able to remain champions for three consecutive years. With one more championship win, they have the potential to achieve a milestone untouched by any team in school history.

The success has been the culmination of hard work and perseverance. Todd Doran, Senior, and one of the leading singles players, said that the team is a tight knit group.

“When we all came in, it was about six or seven freshmen, so it was a whole new team. Ever since then, Coach Comstock didn’t really recruit many kids,” said Doran.

An effort of the small yet talented group has propelled the team toward unprecedented success, a type that even the seniors hadn’t seen coming.

“We became the best team in the conference,” said Doran.

Doran’s fellow senior and leading singles player, Dan Pfaffman, said he’s confident the team will “sweep the conference” again.

“It’s really do or die this year […] We’re not planning on losing to anybody,” he said.

But the team has faced its share of adversity and will continue to see great competition as it progresses to levels past the conference championship. The team faced tough competition in the NCAA Tournament.

“We came in [and] we played an absolute powerhouse,” said Doran. “We had no shot, but it was just a great experience.”

Aside from the opportunity to compete on a national level, this season could produce a finale to a script four years in the making. Doran and Pfaffman are two of six seniors on the team this season. But, the seniors know that winning at any level is a team effort.

“We’re all real fired up. We all want the four-peat,” said Doran. “We’re told no one has ever really done this at MU, not with the same core of kids.”

Head Coach Art Comstock, associate professor of business, is aware that the team has a bull’s eye painted on its back  and that the competition will certainly be heightened.

“Winning is not easy,” said Comstock. “People from the outside look in and look at our record and what we’ve done in the conference, having not lost a match in conference in however many years, and it may seem easy, but it’s not easy.”

“If we keep our focus and keep working hard, [we’ll] be fine…they’ve worked hard throughout their entire careers here, they’ve been successful,” he said.

Whether that success culminates in a CSAC championship, or a run in the NCAA tournament, the campus community can expect an exciting season of men’s tennis.