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 In 2003, the men's tennis team will be one step away from making Bates history. The Bobcats, under 2002 Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Northeast Region Coach of the Year Paul Gastonguay '89, will be gunning for their fourth straight NCAA Division III tournament berth. They would be Bates' first men's team to make that claim and the school's second overall, joining the women's basketball program from 1997-2000. Last year, Bates secured a berth to the NCAA by playing one of its most difficult schedules ever, a docket that included eight matches against nationally ranked teams and a ninth against an unranked NCAA tournament qualifier. The Bobcats' wins over No. 12 Tufts and NAIA No. 21 Point Loma Nazarene during their training trip to California helped them secure the coveted NCAA berth.
With six of the seven starters returning in 2002-03, the Bobcat senior class seems destined for success despite losing No. 2 player Ben Lamanna '02 (Barrington, R.I.), the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Clarence Chaffee Award winner for sportsmanship. Senior No. 1 Alex Macdonald '03 (Bridgewater, Conn.) will look to return to the NCAA individual tournament, as he did in his sophomore season, while classmate Brett Carty (Belle Meade, N.J.) boasted the team's top record at No. 5 singles, going 15-2 and reaching the finals of his flight at the NESCAC championships. He and teammate Mike Hoverman '04 (Warwick, N.Y.) also shocked the field in the No. 3 doubles flight at NESCACs, upsetting the top seed in the quarterfinals. Bates also got outstanding play out of rookies Sam Duvall '05 (Mount Washington, Ky.) at No. 3 and Blake Wayman '05 (Concord, N.H.) at No. 6, as both won 60 percent of their singles matches.
Tennis success at Bates is nothing new. Bud Schultz ’81, the College’s first tennis All-American, went on to become one of the world’s top 40 players. Schultz led his team at Bates to a third-place finish at the NCAA team tournament. Gastonguay followed Schultz’s lead to a world ranking in singles and doubles. The Bobcats' 1996 squad holds the single-season record for wins and made the team's first trip to the NCAA championships. Two members of that team, Mark Erelli '96 and Jeff Poleshek '96, made appearances in the 1995 NCAA individual tournament.
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