MORITZ: A different Bona tennis team looks to repeat A-10 title

04/11/2002

ST. BONAVENTURE — The trophy and the banner are safe. The Atlantic 10 Championship trophy the St. Bonaventure men’s tennis team won last year is sitting on the window sill of head coach Michael Bates’ office in the Reilly Center. The banner from last year’s NCAA Tournament hangs above the same window. Nobody can take those away from Bates and his team, but the Bonnies will look to add some more hardware to their coach’s collection at this weekend Atlantic 10 Tournament. “People keep asking me about us defending our A-10 title,” Bates said. “But defending means that somebody’s trying to take it away, and they can’t take last year’s title from us. We want to win it again this year.” That philosophy — often articulated by Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski — is the one that Bates is taking into the tournament, which begins Friday morning at the Oxford Athletic Club in Monroeville, Pa., not far from Pittsburgh. The Bonnies — who just three years ago were 4-22 — won their first-ever A-10 title a year ago, beating Massachusetts in the finals. That earned the squad an NCAA Tournament berth — they’re the only Bona team other than men’s basketball to make the NCAAs — where they lost in the first round to Texas A&M. However, this year’s team is much different that last year’s. Gone are Markus Arvaja and Drew Crawford, seniors a year ago who anchored the bottom of the lineup and provided valuable leadership. Only two players — junior Vili Nurmi and sophomore Mikko Haulos, both from Finland — return to the lineup. The four other spots go to newcomers — three freshman and one first-year sophomore. “It’s been challenging,” said Bates of the season, during which the Bonnies have gone 10-9. “We’ve been up and down. We haven’t had the consistency. With four new players, I have to remember that they are freshmen, they are learning and they will get better.” Not that the freshmen are doing poorly. Mario Arce — who won the Bolivian national championship in the under-16 and 18 age groups — has won 14 of 17 singles matches since joining the team in January. At one point, he was ranked 135th among U.S. college players — the first national ranking a Bona player’s ever received. Nikhil Murali, a top-15 junior player in his native India, has won his last eight doubles matches and was named A-10 Rookie of the Week last week. However, as good as the newcomers have played, they are still newcomers. They’ve never felt the pressure of A-10s before. Before coming to Bona, they never played for a team before. “It’s different playing for a team,” Bates said. “You have to play with a little more heart and pride for your team.” That’s where Nurmi and Haulos come in. Both are experienced — and talented. Both were all-conference picks last year, and Nurmi was the league’s Most Outstanding Player. This year, they have won a combined 32 singles matches atop the Bona lineup. “I think they’ll definitely have to lead us on and off the court,” Bates said. “Vili’s a good leader, calling team meetings with the players and keeping people calm.” Bates estimated that the Bonnies will enter this weekend’s tournament as about the fourth best team in the league, behind Richmond, George Washington and Xavier. However, the Bonnies are the only A-10 team with a trophy and banner from last year in their coaches office. “The freshmen want to try to live up to last year,” Bates said. “But you can’t do that. Every team is different.” (Brian Moritz is a sports writer for The Times Herald.)