APPLETON, Wis. — Steve Francour knew when he arrived at Lawrence University in the fall of 2013 there was work to be done with the men’s tennis program. He also knew he had something to work with.
Three years later, the Vikings are back in the Midwest Conference Tournament and will be playing for a shot at reaching the NCAA Division III Tournament this weekend.
“The combination of existing players and new players made us good,” said Francour. “But we are really going to have to replenish because we have four seniors. This is a huge step to make the team tournament because it puts you in a different category among the conference teams.”
Lawrence plays Grinnell College at 8:30 a.m. Friday in the semifinals of the MWC Tournament at Nielsen Tennis Stadium at the University of Wisconsin. The winner faces either Lake Forest College or Monmouth College for a berth in the NCAA Tournament.
Just making the team tournament is a step forward for the Vikings, who won just four matches in Francour’s first season after finishing second in the league in 2013. Lawrence went 12-9 this season and posted a 6-3 mark in league play.
“That’s a quantum leap in three years. That’s not an easy jump. That doesn’t happen. It’s exciting to see where we’re going,” Francour said.
“For this group of guys, there are some of them that were on the (2013) team that had a lot of success. I think for them to be a part of the early success and to develop as players and be a part of this success really means a lot.”
Brian DeCorte was a freshman starter back in 2013, and fellow seniors Adam Busch, Mitch Kasprzyk and Ethan Perushek were all on the squad. Over the past three years, Lawrence has added quality players in David Jumes, Izaya Turenne, Bill Schuman-Kline and David Brooker, who are all a part of the lineup.
“I’m glad that we could finish the season for our four seniors on a high note, because they took second at conference their freshman year and we all wanted to send them back again,” Jumes said.
This team’s season came to a head this past Saturday against Cornell College. A win over the Rams would clinch a MWC Tournament for Lawrence. The Vikings swept the doubles matches and it was seniors Busch and Perushek who delivered wins in singles to push Lawrence past the Rams 5-4.
“The guys were extremely excited. Both teams, Cornell and us, knew what was at stake. Sometimes that makes it harder to perform,” Francour said.
“To see the progress of the players and have four seniors that all contributed to our win against Cornell and have the new guys see what it takes to be good is what you need to develop a program.”
The Vikings now face a team they lost to just a week ago, but Francour wants his team to enjoy the moment.
“It’s always kind of an interesting dilemma,” Francour said. “You just played a team that handled you fairly easily and now you have to play them again with much more at stake. My message will be we got this far, let’s play loose and what happens, happens.”
The singles and doubles championships will be contested over the weekend. Jumes and DeCorte are Lawrence’s top doubles team and are expected to contend for the title.
“I have a lot of confidence in doubles with Brian because we’ve played well together for this last stretch of conference matches, and we just learned today that we’re the one seed for conference,” Jumes said. “We’ll go out there, give it our all and hope to bring some hardware home from the weekend.”