Men's Tennis | 10/10/2014 11:10:00 AM

The Bethel University men's and women's tennis teams, led by third-year head coach Drew Fernelius, recently wrapped up the fall portion of their schedule. Both teams had several highlights to the fall and will now turn their attention to off-season workouts in preparation for their first matches of the spring season on February 7th.

"I am really excited with the mix of experience and new faces on our teams," said coach Fernelius. "With both teams having been in the playoffs within the last two years comes higher expectations, but we believe that we have the talent, desire and commitment to working hard and getting better every day to compete in one of the toughest conferences in the country."

By the Numbers
14: Both the men's and women's roster contains 14 student-athletes with the women fielding seven freshman and the men adding six.

20: The Royals participated in a total of 20 practices during the fall season.

3: The men and women combined to participate in three tournaments this fall while the women also competed in three dual matches. The men had twelve players participate in the MIAC Fall Invite which was hosted by Bethel. In addition, eight participated in the ITA at Gustavus. The highlight of the ITA for Bethel players was the doubles performance of Matt Schull and Luke Palmquist who advanced all the way to the third round, upsetting the No. 5 seeded team from Luther College. Their run ended against the eventual runners-up from Coe College.

9: Bethel's No. 1 singles player, sophomore Matt Schull, was seeded 9th out of 125 players at the ITA. Schull's seeding was the highest of the Drew Fernelius era and one of the top seeds in Bethel tennis history.

98: Not participating in the fall season with the tennis team was freshman Jakob Bartels who is the starting goalie, No. 98, for the Royals soccer team. Bartels will look to make an impact on the Royals lineup this spring.

2-1: The Bethel women went 2-1 in match play against some of the top teams from the WIAC. The main competition season for WIAC schools takes place in the fall and the Royals competed very well despite not always having their complete lineup. On September 20th Bethel competed in a doubleheader, taking down UW-Stevens Point 5-4 thanks to Kristin Vivian pulling out a close third-set tiebreak at No. 1 singles as the last match on the court. The second match saw Bethel run out of gas against UW-Oshkosh, who was competing in their first match of the day, as the Royals lost all three of their third-set tiebreaks in an 8-1 loss. The Royals then defeated UW-Stout on September 30th 6-3, despite missing their top three players. Larissa Voss filled in admirably at No. 1 singles, winning 6-3, 3-6, 10-4.

6: The key to the Royals victory over UW-Stout, given the absence of Bethel's top three players, was the contribution of six freshmen. In doubles play, freshman Mattie Kidder teamed up with sophomore Madeline Simpson to take an 8-3 victory at No. 1 singles. Freshman Abby Palmquist teamed with junior Larissa Voss and won 8-4 at No. 2 singles. A pair of freshman, Abigail Anderson and Rachel Riley, teamed up to take a big 8-2 win at No. 3 doubles to give the Royals a commanding lead heading into singles play. Kidder at No. 3 singles and Anna Browning at No. 5 singles where victorious in straight sets while fellow freshman Hannah Quinn fell at No. 6 singles 7-5, 6-1.

Women's Match Results: UW-Steves Point  |  UW-Oshkosh  |  UW-Stout