The absence of John Patrick Mullane in the men’s tennis team’s starting lineup forced many to step up this past Thursday during the first round of the Big Ten Tournament.
As the seventh seed in the bracket, the men’s tennis team, despite receiving major contributions from select players, couldn’t overcome the loss of their former No. 1 man on the roster, falling to Nebraska 4-3 at the University of Illinois’ Atkins Tennis Center.
“Without Mullane, we competed well and represented well but came up short,” head coach Gene Orlando said. “I told the guys at the end that everyone improved, everyone got better. We were just two points shy of winning it.”
The contest was so close that it came down to the final match, which featured Nebraska’s No. 111 Dusty Boyer and Gijs Linders, both of whom were first-team All-Big Ten recipients. Linders, a Netherlands native, was one of 12 conference players to earn the honor.
The MSU senior would falter to Boyer, 7-6 (7-5), 5-7, 7-5, capping off a roller coaster season that saw periods of both excitement and frustration for the Spartans.
Their 13-16 overall record and 4-7 in the conference makes them one of five programs with an under .500 winning total.
Having their top guy out and grinding through a schedule featuring five top-10 teams in the country would be strenuous to any program, but Orlando said, looking back on the season, he feels his players accomplished a lot, including Linders.
Orlando praised Linders for what he has done over the course of the season. Replacing Mullane as the No. 1 man, Linders garnered a better record (16-17) at the new spot in singles competition than last year (12-15) at No. 5.
“He’s reached his level of play,” Orlando said. “It’s interesting to me, looking back on his career I think the more he was challenged, the better he played. I do feel like there was a time where the schedule put him in a downward spiral and, credit to him, he was able to turn the corner and change a negative into a positive.”
When asked about what he can take from this season and improve on for next year, Orlando said his team needs to capitalize on valuable opportunities.
“Obviously, you want to win more,” Orlando said. “But the guys have everything they had, day in and day out, and we finished strong. And knowing that we had chances of doing more that we’ve learned from and carry over into next season and share it with the new players that arrive in the fall.”
