It is not business as usual for Wright State’s men’s tennis team. Todd Tucker, WSU’s interim head coach who took over last summer after serving for a year as an assistant, is in the process of implementing changes.
The changes, Tucker said, are focused on improving the fitness of his squad, who begins Horizon League play Saturday versus Cleveland State. The Raiders enter conference play with a 7-9 record.
This is Tucker’s first year as a Division I head coach. He spent 11 years as a volunteer assistant under his brother at Ohio State.
“We had to play catch up,” Tucker said. “We aren’t there yet. But we’re very, very close.”
The Raiders are well balanced between upperclassmen and underclassmen. WSU has six juniors and seniors and eight freshmen and sophomores. WSU’s five seniors have helped the transition for the coach, said Tucker.
“It was good because of those seniors and because they helped me,” Tucker said. “I challenged the seniors because I knew it was coming, and they took it upon themselves to help and appreciated what I was trying to do.”
We have had some setbacks with injuries,” Tucker added. “We have a good group of listeners and they take everything in, they’re just like a sponge and take everything in. It has speeded up the process.”
Wright State is coming off a 7-0 win over Eastern Illinois on Monday. The Raiders won all three doubles sets and WSU was victorious in straight sets in all six singles matches Monday.
Monday’s win broke a three-game losing streak. WSU lost last weekend at Duquesne and Saint Francis.
“I don’t care about the wins and losses, I just care if we got better, and it was the guys’ best match,” Tucker said. “And then we followed that up with a good win over Eastern Illinois. A lot of times, they worry about wins and losses. We have to worry about getting better, which leads to wins.”
Senior Lauri Makikalli has led the Raiders with a 9-0 record in singles play to start the season. Makikalli has played in the bottom of the lineup for most of the season, but on Monday, played in the No. 2 singles slot for the first time all season. He easily dispatched his opponent from Eastern Illinois 6-1, 6-0.
Tucker has not used Makikalli at the top of the lineup as often because he had a wrist injury at the end of last season.
“He’ll probably go down as one of the top three players to come through Wright State,” Tucker said. “He is a huge, huge talent and he is a huge leader.”
