By Tyler Morello
Staff Writer
The College’s men’s tennis season concluded over the weekend in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championship, as the Lions fell 4-2 to No. 30 Wisconsin-Whitewater in a tight battle to the end.
The Warhawks traveled to Ewing for this championship match on Saturday, May 3, bright and early at 9:30 a.m. They were 15-5 coming into the day, with the majority of their losses only coming against some of the best teams in the nation.
The Warhawks also had the WIAC Player of the Year in sophomore Theo Billson. The England native was stellar in leading the team to many victories this season.
Despite being the underdogs, the Lions were a real threat in this match. Juniors Alberto Thomas and Brett Schuster fought well in their match to come out with a 7-6 win in a tiebreaker, but this posed as the lone doubles win for the Lions on the day.
Down 1-0 heading into the singles matches, the Lions needed everything they could get to complete the comeback.
Schuster got the Lions on the board and was able to pull away in his match after winning the first set 7-6 and 7-5 in the tiebreaker, and then 6-4 in the second set.
On court one, Billson was matched up with the College’s junior Harrison Maitland-Carter. After dropping the first set, Maitland-Carter dug deep to force a third set and defeat the WIAC Player of the Year, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.
This win narrowed the series score to 3-2, but the Lions were not able to come away with another match victory on the day.
Despite the loss, the team has a lot to be proud of this season, as they were not projected to make it this far with a younger team in recent years.
“Our top three guys either graduated or transferred, so there were some big shoes to fill,” Thomas, an applied mathematics major, said. “No one's graduating, so next year we’re gonna keep going and hopefully have a better season and win our conference.”
To put a bright spot on the week, five Lions received All-Conference honors for their play. Maitland-Carter was named East Division Player of the Year and named to the singles and doubles First Teams.
Freshman Sidd Arudi is the East Division Newcomer of the Year, while Schuster and Thomas were also selected to the singles and doubles teams. Maitland-Carter’s doubles partner, junior Asa Wong, made the doubles team as the two went 13-4 as a duo.
The sky is the limit for this Lions team next season, and they are eager to have a bounce-back 2026 campaign.
“I’m proud of our team, I think we finished really strong, and surpassed a lot of expectations in the end,” sophomore Nathan Chan, an accounting major, said.
