As the leaves begin to fall, the Tulane men’s tennis team limbers up and gets its season into full swing. The Green Wave tennis ballers have already traveled a fair amount, taking on teams from across the country. 

Last weekend, Tulane headed to Athens, Georgia, to play in the 52nd Annual Southern Intercollegiate Championships at the University of Georgia.

Twelve schools in total were represented at the event, including tough competitors the University of Central Florida, Clemson, Florida, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Harvard, Illinois, LSU, University of Miami, Texas and Wake Forest. 

Despite their difficult matches, senior Dane Esses and sophomore Hamish Stewart took home the doubles crown. Both players also scored singles victories, with Esses defeating 91st-ranked Boris Kozlov of in-state rival LSU. 

The busy schedule followed the Green Wave men’s tennis team in October. Members of the team headed to Birmingham, Alabama, for the Samford Round Robin, or to Tulsa, Oklahoma, for the 2019 Intercollegiate Tennis Association All-American championships. 

On Tulane’s first day in Alabama, Esses took home a three-set singles and a doubles win with Henry Lovett. Akos Kotorman and Benji Jacobson found similar success in the doubles division, defeating Troy University’s Christopher Tasker and Jorge Poyatos 6-4.

Over the next two days of the competition, Esses and Lovett continued their hot streak, going 3-0 in doubles with two more wins. In singles, Lovett, Kotorman and Jacobson claimed victory, defeating players from the University of Alabama-Birmingham and Middle Tennessee State University. 

During the team’s final day at the Samford Round Robin, however, Esses recorded the lone Green Wave singles victory, while Kotorman and Jacobson took home the sole Tulane doubles win.

At Tulsa, in the ITA All-American Championships, Tim Ruetzel went through two rounds of pre-qualifying singles to defeat Baylor’s Rahul Dhokia in three sets before falling on Monday to the University of Memphis’ Jan Pallares. 

Now, the Green Wave’s hopes for victory in Oklahoma rest on senior Luis Erlenbusch and Stewart who both begin qualifying singles play on Monday.

Tulane tennis will wrap up the ITA All-American Championships later this week, before traveling to Auburn for the ITA Southern Regional Championships on Oct. 17.