Huskies build on past success

The deepest that the Washington men's tennis team has advanced into the NCAA tournament was to the Sweet 16 in 2001. After an early second-round exit last season, the Huskies, ranked No. 21, have the talent and are ready to try and accomplish things that no other UW team has done before. "Our ultimate goal is the win the NCAA championship," 11th-year coach Matt Anger said. "I think we need to get started. We've been practicing, and our guys are more than ready to get started with the season." Washington returns six starters from last season, including two-time All-American senior Alex Vlaski. The Huskies finished fourth in the Pac-10 last year and lost to conference rival Stanford in the second round of the NCAA tournament. "Last year was exciting throughout. We were a very young team, and we played with only one senior in the lineup," Anger said. "We showed a lot of potential as we were able to get up as high as number 10, but we did have a couple of losses and we finished in the 20s." The Huskies start this season off with 11 straight home matches, starting this weekend with matches against Portland Friday and San Francisco Saturday. The team wants to begin the season well so that it can be considered one of the best teams in the nation. "We start each year trying to build from our past," Anger said. "We've made it to the Sweet 16, but we haven't made it to the quarterfinals. We've been ranked as high as number six in the country, but not in the top five. Those are our stepping stones to ultimately winning the national title." For Anger, this year's squad is reminiscent of a past UW team. "The team reminds me a lot of the team we had two years ago that was a Sweet 16 team that got up to number seven in the country," Anger said. "The downfall of that team was that they were super 99 percent of the year but then all of a sudden we had two losses to weaker teams. If we can go without that, then I think that we can get ourselves into the top eight, top five going into the NCAA tournament." The Players Vlaski, who was ranked as high as No. 2 in the singles polls last season, is at the top of the Huskies' lineup. Last season, he led the UW in single wins with 28. "I don't know if I could say enough about Alex. He is an incredible player," Anger said. "We know that with him in our lineup we can put him against anyone in the country, so it's nice to have someone like Alex because every team has good players." Sophomore Alex Slovic grabbed the No. 9 spot in the ITA men's tennis rankings last week. Slovic was awarded the national freshman of the year honors after finishing the 2004 campaign at No. 27 -- the highest finishing ranking for a freshman. He was also the only freshman to receive all-Pac-10 first-team honors last season. Another sophomore the Huskies hope to continue his play from his inaugural year is Daniel Chu. As a freshman last year, he compiled an 18-12 singles record and a 13-8 record in doubles play. "Daniel is ready to break through to hopefully be a top fifty player in the country," Anger said. Along with Vlaski, Washington has a pair of seniors returning in Christoph Palmanshofer, ranked No. 79, and Peter Scharler, who was third on the team in wins with 17 last year. "They have both been very consistent throughout their years and are experienced," said Anger. "They've been on two Sweet 16 teams." Sophomores Chris Floyd and Michael Ricks are the final two returnees from last year's squad. They are both sophomores fighting to hold a spot in the starting lineup for the UW. Floyd had a 7-1 record over the fall season, which was best on the team. He also won the singles Flight B at the Bronco Classic. Ricks spent a lot of time on the sidelines last season and hopes to get a chance to play more this year. The only incoming freshman on this year's squad is Andy Kuharszky. Coming from Budapest, Hungary, the coaching staff expects him to compete for a starting spot in singles and doubles this year. "He serves a lot bigger than I thought," Anger said. "That's one of the things that helps guys get started quickly in college tennis." With a good balance of youth and experience, the Washington men's tennis team hopes to make this season more than just sweet -- they want it to end with a title coming to Montlake.

Huskies build on past success

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