Wright State tennis Head Coach Sean McCaffrey has a lot to look forward to this year. Because he’s the head coach for both the men’s and women’s teams, he has twice as much to look forward to as most collegiate coaches.
McCaffrey wants to see how his two teams rise to the challenge. In the case of the men’s team, he thinks that an NCAA tournament appearance is on the horizon.
“For the men the goal is to win a conference championship and I think that’s going to happen,” McCaffrey said.
The men’s team fell in the conference semi-finals each of the past two years, but returning players like Michal Lyzwa (Jr.) are already seeing the team take steps in the right direction.
“I feel like we’re far more motivated, determined, and committed this year,” Lyzwa said. “We’ve learned a lot from past experiences and we were close, just not close enough. We know we’ll need to work twice as hard as the year before.”
After the fall, the Raiders open up a challenging schedule with a match in East Lansing against Michigan State, which McCaffrey says the team is already looking forward to.
“We’ve added a lot of really tough matches to prepare us for the conference schedule,” McCaffrey said. “As long as we win that conference championship, it doesn’t matter what our record was.”
Along with MSU, the men’s schedule is highlighted with matches against Duquesne, Indiana, Purdue, Louisville, LSU, and Dayton.
“It’s a far more competitive schedule with tougher competition. But we’re really looking forward to it,” Lyzwa said.
For the women, both McCaffrey and Kayla Tuscany (Sr.) see the team as a unified group this year.
“We’re a very strong team in the sense that we fight for each other,” Tuscany said. “We’re a family. If someone needs picked up we’re never going to leave them behind.”
“There’s a real sense of unity,” McCaffrey said. “They’re a very tight team and the girls are very coachable and eager to learn. They love the program and each other.”
Tuscany says each year the team sets goals for what teams they want to beat. For Tuscany, she’ll be looking ahead to their March 9th matchup with Morehead State – the school she transferred from after her freshman year.
“It’ll be the players, it’ll be the coaches and it’ll be the colors,” Tuscany said.
An overview of the schedule shows the women will be playing a large portion of their games at home, which means less missed class time.
“It’s a schedule where we can spend a lot of time at home,” McCaffrey said. “There are only eight away matches, so families will get to come and watch many of the games.”
Things are looking up for WSU tennis.
“The teams have had a complete turnaround over the past three to four years,” McCaffrey said. “The players and department are really buying into the program. It’s a real point of pride for us.”
