By Cooper Moretz '16

BEREA, Ohio – The 2015-2016 Baldwin Wallace University men's tennis team has goals of winning the Ohio Athletic Conference regular season and OAC Tournament titles and returning to the NCAA Division III National Tournament.  The Yellow Jackets and veteran Head Coach Brian Rector have both the talent and firepower to accomplish their goals.

Rector, a 1989 graduate of the University, enters his 27th season at his alma mater and is the winningest men's tennis coach in the OAC and Ohio collegiate tennis with a career mark of 471-95 and an .832 winning percentage.  His teams have had eight 20-win seasons in the last 12 years, including a 29-1 mark in 2012 when the Yellow Jackets advanced to the second round of the NCAA Division III National Tournament.

This fall, Rector returns all six of his starters, led by seniors Peter Harris (Akron/ Richfield Revere) and Doug Ganim (Westerville/ Olentangy Orange). During the past three seasons, this group has produced a 57-11 record with a .838 winning percentage with one OAC regular season title, an OAC Tournament championship and an NCAA tourney berth.

"This is a unique year," said Rector. "The bar will be set high as we return our entire team from a year ago and have some new, talented student-athletes joining our program.

"We will be a very experienced senior and junior-ladden team, and there is a possibility of six of our top eight student-athletes graduating after this season," continued Rector. "Peter Harris, Doug Ganim and Kyle Patterson are all seniors, and Brandon Caynor, Jake Liebler and Nathan Katz are all juniors who could have enough credits to graduate after next spring; so we have a very veteran group with a great deal of experience."

Harris returns as the No.1 singles player and the reigning OAC Player of the Year. The three-time All-OAC standout is joined by two-time All-OAC,two-time Academic All-OAC and No.2 player Ganim at the top of the line up.

Harris had a 15-3 singles mark last season and enters his final season with a 64-14 career mark to rank 14th all-time. Ganim was 17-2 last season at No.2 and has a 61-15 career slate to rank in a tie for 16th all-time. In addition, the duo has combined the past three years in doubles and has a 65-18 mark, including a 22-4 record last season, to rank in a tie for 11th all-time.

Now, add former No.1 singles and both All-OAC and Academic All-OAC player Kyle Patterson (Wooster/ Triway) to the mix as he returns after not playing last season due to an internship.  Patterson has a 59-14 career mark to rank 17th all-time in singles and a combined 61-18 slate in doubles to tie for 17th all-time.

"We have a very strong leadership ladder," said Rector.  "The players voted Peter [Harris] and Nathan [Katz] as our captains for 2015-2016, but we have a lot of excellent leaders on this team.

"In addition, the entire group of upperclassmen have shown excellent leadership as a group, and I think our younger players a year ago, and the one's coming into the program, will see that leadership and learn from it," said Rector.

The firepower continues as junior No.3 player Nathan Katz (Upper Arlington/ Bexley), junior No. 4 player Jake Liebler (Medina), senior No. 5 player Kevin Fredrick (Archbold) and junior No. 6 player Brian Carano (Akron/ Richfield Revere) all return and are ready to battle for their starting jobs.

Katz, who has a 30-21 career mark, was 13-12 in singles a year ago at No.3. Liebler had a 15-12 slate in singles at No.4 and is 22-15 in his career.  The duo also combined for a 14-9 mark in doubles in 2014-2015.

In addition to their excellence on the court a year ago, Harris, Ganim, Katz and Liebler all earn ITA (Intercollegiate Tennis Association) Division III Scholar-Athlete honors. Also, Patterson received the honor in 2014.

We have always stressed academics first and our most important goal is to combine it with outstanding play on the tennis court," said Rector, who knows all about excellence as he was an All-OAC, Academic All-OAC and Academic All-American and once owned the BW school-record for both singles and doubles victories.  "This group is outstanding both in the classroom and on the tennis court. Each young man is a fine representative of Baldwin Wallace."

Rounding out the returning starters are Fredrick and Carano. Fredrick hopes to build off his 14-8 record from a season ago. Carano had a 16-5 record last season. They also combined for a 15-8 doubles record. For their careers, Fredrick is 18-10 in singles and 33-12 in doubles, and Carano is 21-7 in singles and 19-9 in doubles.

"The competition will be fun to watch this fall," said Rector.  "We have a solid group of retuirning veterans and starters, a hungry group of young men who return and hope to crack the lineup and a quartet of freshmen who hope to really push our returnees for their spot inthe lineup.  I'm looking forward to it."

In addition to the six returning starters and Patterson, Rector welcomes back sophomores Gavin Bushong (Marysville), Brandon Caynor (Norton) and Alex Papke (Federal Way, Wash./ Thomas Jefferson).  Both Bushong and Caynor are returning Academic All-OAC student-athletes. The trio each hope to unseat one of the returning starters. This will create outstanding competition for the starting line up.

Last season, Papke had an impressive rookie season posting a 3-2 singles and 2-0 doubles record. Caynor was 4-2 in singles and a 1-1 in doubles. Caynor was 4-2 in singles last year and has a 9-2 career singles record and a 4-3 career doubles mark.

"Alex significantly improved and became much more consistent last season," said Rector. "Brandon embodies the philosophy of the student-athlete and is an outstanding team member who brings a lot to our program. And, Gavin also learned and gained valuable experience a year ago."

Rector also has four freshmen who will be battling with the veterans for a spot in the line up.  They include Ben Binion (Shelby), Roger Boyer (Brunswick), Matt Harris (Akron/ Richfield Revere) and Dominic Polifrone (Hudson).  Harris is the younger brother of Peter.

"We have four talented freshmen joining the program, including two who have the talent and ability to push for a starting spot in our lineup," said Rector of his freshmen. "Both Matt [Harris] and Dominic [Polifrone] were No.1 players for their high school teams and will push for a starting role.  Ben and Roger will both benefit from our upperclassmen and team leaders.

Overall, I am just excited to get started," said Rector.  "We want to compete for an OAC title and get back to the NCAA Division III National Tournament."

The Yellow Jackets open the season on Saturday, September 12 when they play a pair of matches away from home against Grove City (Pa.) College at 11 a.m. and then at Franciscan University at 5 p.m. BW also will play at both the Oberlin College Tournament on Sept.  19-20 and at the annual ITA Central Region tourney at Washington (Mo.) University from Sept. 25 through Sept. 28.  In the spring, BW annually travels to Hilton Head, South Carolina during spring break to play a minimum of five matches and then begins its spring and OAC schedule in mid-March.