Princeton tennis ready to swing away

Members of the 2008 Princeton Tennis team include (front row, left to right) Jason Englehart, Doug Faber, Michael Read, Joe Bowman, (second row) coach Connie Lind, Andrew Faber, Derek Wagner, Andrew Pfundstein, assistant coach Alex Arauza. (Photo contributed)

E-mail this story

Print this story

Share

PRINCETON — There’s no truth to the rumor that the Princeton High School tennis team will be swinging snow shovels this year instead of tennis racquets. But they were starting to wonder.

They have only been outside to practice once thus far, and to do that, they had to shovel off the remaining snow at Alexander Park. Even when they did that, four of the seven varsity players missed practice for the school play.

And ready or not, they will open the season Saturday in the Moline Invitational.

“It’s getting crunch time since we got our first varsity invitational Saturday,” PHS coach Connie Lind said.

At Moline, the Tigers will face the likes of Rockford Auburn, Dixon and Moline, big schools who have the luxury of indoor facilities. If the weather doesn’t break for the better, Lind said, Saturday’s meet will move indoors.

Of the seven varsity players, Lind has three returning starters in seniors Doug Faber, Jason Englehart and Michael Reed at the top three singles positions. Other varsity members include seniors Andrew Faber, Andrew Pfundstein and Joe Bowman, junior Derek Wagner and sophomore Dhruvin Vaidya.

Faber, who went to state at doubles last year with his brother, Kevin, will concentrate on No. 1 singles, but team with Englehart for No. 1 doubles for invitationals and sectional.

And even though his brother, Kevin, said Faber would be lost without him this year, Lind said, “Doug is going to do fine.”

But it won’t come easy in the NCIC, she said.

“It’s going to be tough at sectionals in our conference. They’re very good players. But Doug is going to do fine. He’ll carry his own weight,” she said.

The Tigers coach received a pleasant boost in the addition of Vaidya, who moved to Princeton from his native India to live with his uncle, Dr. Ketan Patel.

Lind said she was told, at first, he was a foreign exchange student, and when she saw him play, “I said just how long are you staying? And he said, ‘until I graduate.’”

The Princeton F/S squad is 24 strong. Top players for coach Alex Arauza are sophomores Matt Smith, John Zearing, Sam Nelson, Vaughn Kimberley and Chad Hermeyer.

Other F/S squad members are sophomores Calvin Baker, Ethan Krieger, Morgan Lucas, Darryn Rowe, Dane Stier, Joe Waller, Jonathan Wolf and freshmen Eric Bickett, Jake Biddix, Reiter Bird, Scott Blessman, Michael Bornsheuer, Michael Bowman, Jim Ferrell, Alex Lange, Quinton Puebla, Kyle Regal and Reynard Tirao.

Comment on this story at www.bcrnews.com.