The weekend of April 29 and 30 the 2016 NJCCA Region 4 Men’s DI Tennis Tournament was hosted at Harper College, which resulted in Elgin Community College returning not victorious but defeated.

Kosuke Enami, 2nd semester ECC student, understands he didn’t have his best performance of his tennis career but Enami will still continue to compete in a sport in which he has been involved in since the age of 9.

Enami played 2nd Singles and was defeated by Ian Milan of Prairie State College 6-2, 6-0.

“In doubles I was pretty satisfied,” said Enami. “My partner is pretty great.”

Enami enjoys playing doubles and feels he has a better outcome because there is mental support from his partner. Enami also felt he excelled in his drive to win and relentless work ethic.

“Even if we play a really dominate player I enjoy so it doesn’t intimidate me but it’s actually funner throughout,” said Enami.

Enami wasn’t the only ECC athlete to be eliminated in the first round. In fact, all 5 players were defeated in the first round. In the doubles matches ECC continued to have trouble and failed to advance past the 1st round.

Enami’s doubles partner, Josh Hagel, wasn’t happy with his performance either. James Forster (Oakton Community College) defeated Josh Hagel 6-0, 6-1.

“I feel like I definitely need to work on my consistency with my serve but everything else is alright,” said Hagel.

Hagel made no excuses for his performances, even though the weather at Harper’s tennis courts was down to the 40s, which may be why Hagel prefers to play indoors where weather conditions aren’t a factor on the tennis court.

Hagel is a 2nd year student and first year athlete. Following his 2nd year at ECC, Hagel will begin his Carpenter apprenticeship and continue to play tennis recreationally.

What both Hagel and Enami have in common is that they both do not plan to pursue a career and play tennis professionally. Also, the two were engaged early in their childhood due to siblings competing in tennis matches and for fun.

Coach Clark Hallpike anticipated it being a difficult season for the Spartans. Hallpike can’t recall the last time he had an all-freshman team. His previous season couldn’t have ended in a better fashion. The Spartans dominated regionals and one athlete was named Most Valuable Player of the decade.

Coach Hallpike sometimes gets a new crop of players and tries to fine tune their skills and refine their game with hopes of minimal coaching and practice and accelerated maturity leading into regionals and so forth. Nonetheless, Coach Hallpike’s two decades worth of coaching and wisdom will remain to be the supreme tool in ECC’s tennis program.

The weekend seemed bitter throughout with inclement weather conditions, relocating and player frustration contributing to the intensity and drama of the 2016 regional tournament.

One college clearly dominated and had spectacular results. Prairie State College won every match in singles and in doubles. From a spectator’s view, PSC could not have performed any better. Coach Hallpike along with others agree that PSC’s success can be attributed to their scouting practices and talent acquisition.

One athlete from PSC is from the U.S. and the remaining are international. This proved to be advantageous and beneficial to PSC, who won the Championship in triumphant fashion regardless of the competition offered by the other eight colleges.