After careful consideration and review from the Club Sport Council, Club Tennis has been permitted to continue with practices alongside several guidelines and changes to ensure our players health and safety.

Player and team capacity has been limited to roughly 20 players in order to accommodate 6 feet social distancing guidelines while inside the Bubble and all players will be required to wear masks during practices. Thankfully, the team has the opportunity to continue to travel to various tournaments with review and approval from Club Sports on a case-by-case basis. We plan to continue practices as normally as possible, including various games, drilling, and match play to provide our players with the best possible experience and ability to improve upon their tennis skills.

Although the circumstances are not ideal, we are excited to be able to welcome back some of our returning players, as well as a few new players. Tryouts will be held Monday September 21, Tuesday September 22, and Thursday September 24 from 9-10:30 PM in the Tennis Bubble in order to fill the remaining open spots on the team. For the Fall semester, we have made the tough decision to suspend our non-competitive team for the time being, until our capacity limits increase, after which we hope to be able to return to our original operations with both non-competitive and competitive team practices.

Club Tennis Exec understands that the parameters are not ideal for many of our returning and incoming players, however, we promise to keep you all updated and informed on any changes that may arise throughout the semester and the following. We hope to be back to our normal schedule next semester, but for right now, we are just excited to be allowed the opportunity to play some tennis:) To everyone, stay safe and healthy and we hope to see you out on the courts soon!

GO DAWGS!

After receiving the exciting news that students will be allowed to return to campus in August, we can officially begin to look forward to another great year and season for Butler Club Tennis.

Although there are still many logistics to figure out, Club Tennis is hoping to resume practices as normal this fall and our executive team is is doing everything in their power to make that happen. Our players cannot wait to get back in the Tennis Bubble and show off their skill and we cannot wait to see all of the new talent as well this upcoming fall.

From Butler Club Tennis, to you, we hope that you and your loved ones are still staying safe and enjoying some summertime activities as the country begins to reopen. Don’t forget to grab a friend, pick up that racket, and hit the courts. And as always, GO DAWGS!

With students hoping to return to campus in the fall, this year’s Club Tennis Executive Team is getting excited for a new season and to meet all of our new and incoming players.

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus, sports around the country, both collegiate and professional, have been greatly affected. During the spring 2020 semester, our travel team was preparing for the Spring Invitational in Las Vegas, Nevada. However, the night before our scheduled departure, Butler announced it’s closure for the remainder of the semester. Unfortunately, due to the spread of the pandemic, our team was not able to attend the tournament, which was later cancelled. This was a huge bummer for all of our players attending, as they were very much looking forward to the chance to play in Vegas and compete for a top spot in the tournament.

Despite the unforeseen circumstances regarding the pandemic, Butler Club Tennis had an outstanding year last year and went out swinging. We are looking forward to our upcoming season and all of the practices, tournaments, and memories it has in store for each of us. Each and every one of our players has a strong passion for this sport and we cannot wait to have everyone back on campus playing together. There is always a lively yet competitive atmosphere in the tennis bubble that I guarantee all our players miss.

There are high hopes for the upcoming year and we are excited to see everyone’s faces on campus! We hope that our players and their families are finding ways to stay safe and active during these trying times, and hopefully have the chance to pick up a racket again real soon.

And as always, GO DAWGS!!

2020 is about to be a great year for the Butler Club Tennis Team! Looking ahead, we have several big things planned for the spring semester.

First, on February 6th the dawgs will be playing at the annual Naptown Classic at the IUPUI tennis center. This is always a fun tournament for us and a great warmup for the big tournaments that follow.

In just a few weeks, we will be heading to the Midwest Sectional Championships at the University of Wisconsin. This tournament is packed with great competition and huge schools. We are hopeful to reverse the outcome of last semester’s tournament at UW (aka – get into a winner’s bracket). Depending on how our team finishes in this tournament we will either go to the National Tournament (location tbd) or the Spring Invitational in Las Vegas!

Lots of things coming for the dawgs. Looking like a great 2020 so far! Stay on the lookout for updates on how we do and where we end up going!

Our team headed to the Badger Invitation at the University of Wisconsin-Madison this past weekend for our last tournament of the fall semester. This tournament was filled with top notch teams, but we competed very well.

The tournament began with pool play, where we played Wisonsin’s A team, GVSU, and University of Milwaukee. Milwaukee was first, and as per usual, we started off slow and lost in a close match. GVSU was another close match, but we pulled through with a win. Wisconsin A was our most difficult opponent of the day. Despite us all playing well, we could not top their impressive game. This pool play put us into the Bronze bracket for the following day.

Bracket play began early with two quick wins against two very good teams, Iowa State and Marquette. We were all playing our best and had some great moments. We made it to the championship bracket where we played University of Nebraska in a very tight match. Unfortunately, we could not pull out the win, making us end the tournament as runner-up in the Bronze bracket.

Overall, this weekend was very exciting with it being our biggest tournament yet. Everyone really showed their talents and made us see how good we could be as a team. We cannot wait to see how our season continues in the spring!!

Go dawgs! 🙂

Club Tennis season has begun and is now in full swing. It was a busy September, which begun by welcoming lots of great new players to our team. It was great to see everyone coming in the first practice with lots of enthusiasm, starting the year off strong. Our first tournament came only two weeks into the season at Indiana State University. The wind was brutal, and there were a couple tumbles, but the dawgs pulled through with a second place finish in the silver bracket. The next weekend, we invited Indiana State to our campus for a scrimmage match. It was perfect weather, and we were able to get in a lot of great practice matches. (It was just a scrimmage, but I’d say we won).

Coming up, the dawgs are headed to the Toledo Clay Court Invitational this weekend. We cannot wait to showcase our sliding skills on the court and see how we’ve improved since the last tournament.

So far it’s looking like it’s going to be another great Club Tennis season. We are excited to see what the rest of the year brings!!

Go dawgs!!!

During the middle of February, the club tennis team traveled to Madison, Wisconsin to compete in the Tennis on Campus Sectionals tournament. The team went 2-3, with all three losses coming to the talented teams of Notre Dame, Michigan, and Marquette. Despite this, the team yet again made the gold bracket, continuing our reputation of having a great team for such a small school.

Despite the losing record, there were many bright spots during the tournament. For example, our mixed doubles team of first-years Evan Kubiak and Maggie Stopa pulled out a 6-4 win against a very talented Michigan team. First-year Hannah Nabhan won a marathon 6-5 singles match against Marquette. Junior Matthew Dickett and first-year Parker Anderson demolished the Marquette men’s doubles team 6-1. And sophomore Erich Endres came back from down 2-5, 0-40 to win against Hillsdale College.

The final scores were d. Hillsdale College 30-15, d. Illinois State 30-7, l. Notre Dame 30-15, l. Michigan 28-8, l. Marquette 24-19. It was a great tournament with lots of good playing all around, and we are looking forward to the Spring Invitational in Orlando in late March! Go Dawgs!

The club tennis team hopes everyone had a fun, relaxing Christmas break! While we were away, the courts were resurfaced in the Tennis Bubble and they look fantastic! For pictures make sure to check out the Men’s and Women’s tennis team’s social media accounts.

The biggest difference between the new courts and the old ones is the amount of traction you can get when moving. The old courts in numerous spots were slick, and it was easy to lose your balance when sliding or changing direction. The new courts allow for a much faster change of motion, and you have much more control when sliding as well. A major benefit to the new courts is also the clear lines. Especially on the baseline, the lines are easy to see and they make close calls much easier to determine.

But with these new courts comes the need to keep them in good condition. It is important to always wear tennis specific shoes when playing on new courts as to not damage them. Tennis specific shoes are clear by their wider bases and reinforced sides. For example, it is much more difficult to roll your ankle in tennis specific shoes, since the sides are much more sturdy. In order to avoid injury and damage to the courts, always make sure to wear proper tennis shoes when participating in any physical activity on a tennis court.

That’s all for this update, the club tennis team is excited for tournaments to come in February and March!

At Club Tennis tournaments, you not only need good players to win, but you need good teams, specifically in doubles, since those make up 3 out of the 5 matches. Tennis is also not all about pure ability and natural talent. There are many strategies and tactics you can implement to drastically improve your game.

In this post, we will focus on doubles. Much more often than in singles, a doubles team that is worse ability-wise can often pull off upsets against better players. This is because ball placement, strategy, and teamwork are extremely important to succeed in doubles. The two most important shots in doubles are serves and returns. Yes, this means volleys aren’t the most important shots. A good server can set up their partner at the net for a put-away, and a good returner can neutralize the advantage the serving side has.

Let’s talk about serving. Before the serve, either by coming together and talking or with hand signals, you and your partner should have a plan for where the serve it going, and what the net player is going to do. There are three choices for the location of serve: down the T, body, or out wide. The effectiveness of each serve depends on your opponent; if they are a right hander with a weak backhand, go down the T on the deuce side and out wide on the Ad side, changing it up occasionally. Serving in doubles is all about setting up your opponents in a bad situation. You don’t have to have a powerful serve, you just need to be smart with it.

For the net player, it is all about whether or not to poach. Poaching is when the net player moves over into the middle of the court, cutting off a ball going cross court. This, of course, leaves the down the line shot open, but it can end the point immediately if done correctly. Poaching is especially effective with a good server because your opponents’ returns will most likely be weak down the middle, so you can win the point immediately.

This synergy between the server and net player is extremely important in doubles. If you plan well before every point, you will stand a great chance at holding serve and put the pressure right back on your opponent. Remember, a smart team can always beat a skilled team.

The Butler Club Tennis team participated in the Toledo Clay Court Invitational last weekend from October 19-21 and finished in 3rd place with a 5-1 record. There was great play all around and it was awesome to see the new faces on the team enjoying their first tournament.

One interesting factor about this tournament was that it was played on clay, not hard court like we are used to in the tennis bubble. Many of our players had never played on clay before, so we sat down and talked about the differences between playing on the different surfaces. Clay lends itself to much longer, more tactical points; the ball bounces higher and slower, which means you can get more balls back to your opponent. Another key part of playing on clay is learning how to slide. You can be a good player without learning this skill, but sliding on clay courts allows for faster recovery (and it looks pretty cool).

Here’s a link showing how to slide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C8_v-40Ph4

Finally, the other variable our players had to deal with was the wind. A cold front was coming through during the weekend, so the winds really began to pick up throughout the tournament (we even had to go inside at one point, it got so windy). The best way to combat blustery conditions is to put tons of spin on your shots. The more spin you use, the more the ball will cut through the wind. Also, depending on the wind direction, you should change your tactics. It the wind is at your back, use lots of topspin and move forward into the court; your opponent’s shots will get held up in the air, allowing you to be more aggressive and take control of the court. In the opposite situation, you can swing much harder on your shots. You don’t need to worry about hitting the ball long, the wind will bring it back in. So go for it!

That’s all from this weekend. Go Dawgs!