The men’s tennis team will get a chance to see its spring competition early when it plays in the annual ITA Regional Tournament this weekend. The team which had 12 players in the final 16, and seven of the final eight last year, is going into this year’s tournament with varying expectations.

“Expectations are a weird thing because last year was our rebuilding year and we had a great tournament. It certainly shows who is playing the best,” head coach Jeff Northam said. “This year is a little interesting because we have several players that are abroad for the semester and we have guys that are injured so we are missing a significant part of our team going into the weekend.”

Despite missing many players, the team will have defending champion and number-one seed, junior Matt Solomon will look to defend his title.

“Obviously since I am going into the tournament as the defending champion and I definitely want to defend my title,” Solomon said. “It is a bit different because the fall is more individual so it is a little more individual goal oriented.”

Solomon pointed out that his accomplishment was not as impressive as having seven of the final eight in the tournament.

The event, which brings Division III schools from the region, places players in two draws of 64.

“Because of the format of the tournament I hope to see guys compete really well. It is nice to see players that haven’t been at the top slots to feel that they are,” Northam said.

He also likes to see how players compete at this tournament because, as Solomon said, the fall is much more individual.

When it comes to the schools in the tournament, most are in the Northwest Conference, which nearly makes this a pre-season conference tournament. The team sees this as an advantage.

“I think that last year when we had seven of the eight in the quarterfinals it set the bar high and we were very confident in our abilities as a team and I think it set the tone for the season so hopefully with a successful fall tournament we will see something similar,” senior Justin Hayashi said. Solomon agrees with Hayashi on this point.

“There is no doubt that if we do as well as we did last year, then we will go into conference matches with the same attitude and mentality,” Solomon said. “It gives you a lot of confidence going into matches. It also sends a very clear message to other teams.”

The team feels that it has a real chance of doing better this year because of the extensive training the team has done this fall.

“I think the training has been great because it has shown us how hard we can work as a team, and that if we are able to work this hard in the preseason it sets us up to go above what we did last season,” sophomore Chris Bailey said.

Solomon also feels that the training schedule gives the players an advantage both physically and mentally.

“I think the biggest advantage you can have is knowing that you are ready physically and mentally,” he said. “The thing with tennis is if you work harder physically you are going to be much stronger mentally because you have that confidence. You know you are fitter you know you are stronger.”