The Texas Wesleyan men’s tennis team has advanced to the semi-final round of this year’s National Athletic Intercollegiate Association regional tournament.

The Rams swept Southwestern Christian University 5-0 in the quarterfinals on Friday; the team swept the doubles competition and got a three-set win from Linus Richter and a 6-4, 6-1 victory by Mace Brasher, according to ramsports.net. The team then finished season later that day with a loss to Texas A&M Texarkana, the top-ranked regional team.

Brasher said that the team found success in getting third in their region as a first-year program. The team’s schedule was very hard, which helped the players grow to not feel any intimidation when facing big opponents.

“During the offseason, the team plans to focus on gaining strength and fine-tuning games to be able to do better during the fall and spring regional tournaments,” Brasher said.

Schmitt, a freshman, said that every player this season has shown potential to be great in both singles and doubles.

He said they came together as a team and although they didn’t go as far as they would’ve liked, it was definitely a successful season.

“It was our first year so the goal was to basically just to settle in a bit and compete, especially with the good teams,” Schmitt said.

Student assistant Katy Foster said the team achieved one of its goals for the season by being competitive in the conference tournament and making it to the semi-finals.

She said it was a big accomplishment for the first-year team full of freshmen.

“We as a coaching staff have seen these men grow on and off the court,” Foster said. “They worked hard all year long to get where they finished up and our positive attitudes had a really big part in our success.”

She said that their positive attitudes were a big part of their success and that the team can only get better. During the off-season, the team needs to maintain fitness while hitting as much as they can.

She said that those are the main things that need to be sustained to make sure the team can continue progressing when they get back to school after the summer.

For more news and info about Texas Wesleyan athletics, visit ramsports.net