The Red played its final tournament of the fall season over the weekend, hosting Lafayette, Duquesne, Buffalo, Princeton and Binghamton at Reis Tennis Center for the Cornell Invitational.

“It was a good opportunity for us to get in some pretty solid home matches,” said junior co-captain Jared Karson. “I think we could have done a little better but I’d say it was a solid performance.”

“The weekend was pretty good, we won two of the four points for doubles, and got to the finals for both singles points, which was good,” added freshman Kyle Berman.

One area in which the team is looking to improve is in remaining competitive throughout a tournament.

“I felt there were a few performances I liked and I hope we can improve on those,” said head coach Silviu Tanasoiu. “Overall I felt like we have to improve … the way we approach our competition. I think we have to work on developing better habits as a team in matches and more importantly, the way we approach our matches. I feel like our discipline and determination need to be addressed, and we are going to do just that [as we approach] the end of the season.”

Freshman Jason Luu, who won a doubles title but finished second in his singles bracket, agreed with Tanasoiu.

“In singles [last week], I had a pretty rough weekend at Dartmouth, so I thought I bounced back pretty solidly [this week],” he said.  “But [in the finals] by the second set and the third set I didn’t really adjust, and I didn’t play particularly well. I thought my opponent was definitely beatable if I had played a little better. I definitely didn’t pay my best in the later part of the match. The first set was pretty good tennis; the second and third, not so much.”

It is possible that some of these on court jitters are a reflection of the team’s limited experience. That being said, the team is not looking to make excuses and is instead trying to fight back against these odds.

“We are an extremely young group but we can never use that as an excuse for our shortcomings or our approach to the competition,” Tanasoiu said. “We have definitely made some improvement but we still need to put in a lot of work to be where we need to be.”

Tanasoiu, who only started coaching the Red a few weeks ago, has some firm philosophies and many plans moving forward. So far, the new coach has been meshing well with his players.

“[Having a new coach] is going well,” Karson said. “I think he is doing a pretty good job. He is stressing obviously some new things, like being more aggressive when we’re at net in doubles. I think he is going to get all of us ready [for the spring].”

Something unique to Tanasoiu’s coaching style that particularly attracted Cornell to the former Oklahoma assistant is his willingness to dedicate individual attention to his players.

“We are going to put together a developmental plan for each player on the team and the process of going about accomplishing that is ging to be our main goal,” he said.

The team is on board and ready to work hard, setting high standards for itself in light of last year’s unprecedented Ivy League championship. 

“We have a lot of room for improving, and I know we can do better,” Luu said. “But we really want to prepare so that we can do a lot of damage in the spring season. I think we have a lot of potential.”

One thing the team does not have to worry about as much is chemistry. Although more than half of the squad is comprised of freshmen, the players have adjusted well throughout the course of the fall tournament season, according to Karson. 

“The freshmen are contributing a lot and I know they are definitely excited for the dual matches to start in the spring,” he said. “The team dynamic is always very strong.”

Memories of the rocky start to the season still linger — former head coach Tony Bresky left just before the first competition — but things have turned sweeter as the team reflects on what it accomplished this fall.

“I think everyone on the team definitely improved,” Berman said. “Even though we had coaching changes, I think that we all got through it and came together as a team to work hard and get better.”

Although there will be no more competitive play until the spring, the Red shows no signs of slowing down, still working hard to reach its high goals.

“If every single person is going to take care of his own plan, I think we can be successful as a team,” Tanasoiu said.