Piper tennis, men’s and women’s, concluded their season last Saturday at the Holt Courts with a 9-0 loss against St. Olaf.

The men’s finished with an overall record of 5-18 and the women’s finished 6-18, the most wins for the program since 2007. With both squads stacked with underclassmen, they’re looking to use this season’s experience as building blocks for the future.

“I feel it’s worth it to put all the time in to try to be the best you can be,” senior Dylan Sperry said.

Sperry explained that after his sophomore year on the tennis team he vowed to become more competitive and improve his production on the court. He explained that it started with setting a goal.

“Playing tennis really showed me what it means to really work hard for something and try to achieve a goal,” Sperry said. “For the first time in my life it was something that I like came up with a goal, a couple goals, that I really wanted; and I’ve really buckled down and really tried to achieve those goals. It really showed me what I have to do if I want to achieve something.”

Sperry began playing tennis in the seventh grade, where there were three different levels:  varsity, junior varsity and the “C” team, Sperry was on the “C” team. He said he joined the team for the social aspect and considered pursuing baseball.

“I feel like it was worth it for me to work extremely hard the past two years to become a decent player,” he said, “because when you’re in college there’s only four years left to play and it’s completely different after; you don’t have a team.”

Sperry’s advice to the other athletes was to do the same, to work really hard and be the best athletes they can be.

First-year Cody Jahrig intends to do that by building upon his skills over the summer through tennis tournaments. Jahrig said head coach Jon Henning encouraged the team to participate in five to six tennis tournaments over the summer. Jahrig said he feels playing tennis all year round would help the team to become more competitive.

“If you can keep playing all year round then you will be a lot more competitive than some of these other teams if they take their time off,” Jahrig said.

He also believes the men’s tennis program will become more competitive in the MIAC because of the experience their young roster gained this season.

“A lot of tennis is so mental that it’s like if you’ve been there and played the matches, you have a lot more confidence going in as a junior or senior,” Jahrig said. “We should be a pretty competitive team in the MIAC in the next couple of years.”

Women’s tennis athlete Emily Butler, a sophomore, said they have an edge over some of the other MIAC opponents next season.

“We won’t lose anyone in our lineup,” Butler said. “I think that will really help because a lot of teams will be losing players, but we’ll stay the same and we kind of know what to expect at this point; we have a little more knowledge about it.”

Butler’s also confident with the direction the team is moving, especially since their young roster contributed toward them winning the most meets since 2007.

“It definitely shows how far our program has come in the past years,” Butler said. “To have the most wins in a season is just a great building up to next season; to beat that and have more MIAC wins too.”

She’s also confident with the success she’s had this season in the MIAC as she was able to win her first conference singles match against St. Mary’s.

Jahrig also found success midway through the season, once he recovered from a broken ankle he sustained during the winter that sidelined him at the start of the season.

“[Jahrig] stepped up pretty well at the end of the season,” Sperry said.

Jahrig played a competitive set against the St. Thomas Tommies on April 13, when he played three full sets during singles and lost on a tiebreaker.

“It was a good match, I probably should have won,” Jahrig said. “A lot of our guys are young and I think in a couple of years we will be able to beat schools like St. Thomas who have a lot of older guys.”

Sperry said the team played well but couldn’t carry out a win.

“It sucks to lose that many close matches,” Sperry said, “[but] as a team for the most part, a lot of them played about as could they could.”

Following the meet against St. Thomas, Jahrig along with senior Derek Lutz, won doubles against St. John’s on April 23. However, after that meet Lutz recorded the only win for the men’s tennis against Bethel and as a team they were shutout against St. Olaf.

However, Jahrig sees this season as a building block for the underclassmen on the squad and a learning curve.

“Our team is so young,” Jahrig said. “A lot of us young guys got to play in the lineup. Usually you have to work your way up, but we were just kind of thrown into the lineup. It was definitely a big step up from high school tennis.”