Ever since Head Coach Chris Leicht has took over as the Wilkes University men’s and women’s tennis team, they have dominated their opponents frequently.
Leicht has coached 70 All-Freedom performers since 2003 on both the men’s and women’s roster combined. He has seen 14 individual MAC champions and nine doubles pairings take home the title on the men’s said and has also seen 25 individual and 13 doubles MAC championships on the women’s side.
He’s been named coach of the year eight times on the women’s side and six times for the men.
With a great coach that brings in great players year in and year out, the recipe for success will continue to be here as long as he is the head man. This upcoming spring season should prove to be no different for the Colonels.
“The players have worked extremely hard this fall and off-season, and we are ready for our upcoming conference matches,” Leicht said.
“We are excited to compete again for conference team championships. The women are going for their seventh straight championship and men going for eighth straight championship. Also, we would love the opportunity to play in the NCAA National Tournament again.”
With so many championships in a row, Leicht understands that teams will be gunning for them. As long as the Colonels and Lady Colonels continue to work hard and perform under pressure there is no reason another league championship is not in reach.
Leicht believes he has great captains that do an awesome job of leading by example. One of the men’s captains, senior Alex Makos, looks to cap off an excellent career by having a great last year.
“My expectations for this upcoming season are to continue onto the play-offs and compete in the MAC finals,” the senior captain said.
Makos also wants this year’s men’s team to go places it has never done before.
“I would like to win two rounds in the NCAA National Tournament which has never been done in school history. We made it through one round last year and it was a great experience. I want to share this great experience the current freshmen.”
The women’s team has big goals as well, following a great spring break trip where they took two of their three matches. Senior women’s Captain Ally Kristofko has similar expectations to those of Leicht and Makos.
“This season our expectation is to win another conference title,” Kristofko said. “We worked hard during the offseason, and we played well during our spring break in South Carolina. We feel that we’ve put in the time and the effort and that it will pay off for us on the court this season.”