The Monmouth College men's tennis team gets their season underway this weekend with two matches in Iowa. The Scots travel to Waverly, Iowa, home of Wartburg College for two Saturday matches. At 1 p.m. the team faces the University of Northwestern (Minnesota) and at 4 p.m. they play Wartburg.
"We're excited to finally get back to action this weekend," said head coach Brian Jordan. "It will have been 369 days since our last match in spring break last year, fittingly against Northwestern."
Matchup History
The Scots beat UNW in the only matchup between the two team on March 13, 2020 in Orlando, Florida. Monmouth took the match 5-4 winning two of the three doubles matches and splitting the six singles matches.
Joseph Shie (Davenport, Iowa),
Andrew Shie (Davenport, Iowa) and
Zach Harris (Mascoutah, Illinois) won their singles matches, each in straight sets.
"Looking back on that match last year our two doubles teams took a huge step forward," said Jordan. "We are hoping to start out season off like that this year and we're very experienced at the top of the lineup. I look forward to watching compete at a high level."
The Scots have faced Wartburg six times going 5-1. The most recent matchup was the lone loss, 6-3, on March 16, 2019. The Scots are 4-1 in Waverly and 1-0 at home against the Knights. Harris, A. Shie and
Brendan Guenther (Pekin, Illinois) all won their singles matches at Wartburg in 2019 while J. Shie lost as did all three doubles matches.
About Last Year
The Scots were off to a 4-2 start last year before the season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The four wins matched the team's win total from 2019 when they finished tied for sixth in the Midwest Conference.
Joseph Shie was 6-0 in singles last year and only dropped one of 13 sets. Ironically their last match was against this year's first opponent, UNW.
Both Shie brothers along with
Omar Godinez (Tlaquepaque, Mexico) and
Alex Martin who graduated, were named Scholar-Athletes by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. The team also earned their third ITA All-Academic Team award for a cumulative team GPA of 3.2 or higher. The Shie's and Guenther were All-Academic MWC selections.
Scouting the Scots
Joseph Shie enters the 2021 season with an eight-match win streak at the #1 singles position. He hasn't lost since an April 10, 2019 setback against Illinois College. Shie has a 31-16 career mark in singles and 19-26 in doubles. Last season he partnered with Harris to go 4-2 at the #1 doubles position.
Andrew Shie was 4-2 as a sophomore last year in the #2 singles spot. He enters the 2021 season with an 11-8 singles record at Monmouth and a 7-12 doubles mark. Last year he played #2 doubles with Guenther and the team went 4-2.
Harris played at the #3 singles position last year and posted a 4-2 record. One of two seniors on the team, Harris is 22-18 in singles for his career with a high of 10 wins in 2019. He is 18-21 in doubles and he and
Joseph Shie have won three matches in a row.
Guenther played #5 singles as a sophomore going 3-3 last year. He has a 7-15 career mark in both singles and doubles. He and
Andrew Shie won two straight doubles matches to close out 2020.
The Scots lost both
Alex Martin and
Nicholas Robertson off the 2020 team. Martin was 1-5 in the #4 singles spot while Robertson was 0-4 at the #6 singles spot. Robertson picked up two wins by withdraw and the duo also won two doubles matches through withdraw.
This year's team features three options to fill out the back end of the roster. Guenther will move up to the #4 slot while newcomers
Matthew Simonson (Monmouth, Illinois) and
Adam Greer (Brimfield, Illinois) will play at #5 and #6 respectively. Simonson, a junior and Greer, a sophomore, will team at #3 doubles. Godinez, a sophomore who was on the roster last year, fills out the 2021 roster.
On the Sidelines
Head coach Brian Jordan is a Monmouth alum entering his seventh year as head coach of the men's program. With 46 wins he is the second-winningest coach in program history and four wins away from the 50-win plateau. He is also the winningest coach in Monmouth women's tennis history after taking over that program in 2013. Jordan started as an assistant to Coach Braun with the men in 2008 after playing at Monmouth on the school-record 22-win team in 2006.
Up Next
Following this weekend's matches then men's team has three weeks off before traveling to face Illinois College on April 14. The first home meet is scheduled for Sunday, April 18 against Cornell.
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