1996-97 in Review
"Remarkable." That is the word that best describes the 1996-97 Purdue men's tennis team. After all, this was a team that won 18 dual matches, the most since 1987. This was a team that got off to an immaculate 6-0 start and surrendered only seven times, the least amount of losses in one season since 1963. This was a team that boasted the 1996 Rolex Regional Champion and National Indoor competitor. This was a team that sent its top doubles combo to the NCAA Championships for the second consecutive year. This was a team that received the No. 2 seed in the Big Ten Championship tournament. This was a team that received Purdue's first-ever bid to an NCAA Team Regional Championships. But most importantly, this was a team.
The season started off well for the Boilers. At the Notre Dame Tom Fallon Invitational (Sept. 20-22), senior Greg Wessenberg won the C Flight singles, while the dynamic doubles duo of sophomores Cris James and Derek Myers took second place in the A Flight.
James and Myers took their prowess to the T. Rowe Price National Clay Courts in Baltimore, Md. (Sept. 26-29), as one of only 16 doubles teams in the nation invited to compete. James and Myers won their first match and advanced to the consolation finals before bowing out.
Following the Ball State Invitational (Oct. 4-6) , James, Myers and sophomore Jamie Gordon represented Purdue at the ITA All-American tournament in Austin, Texas (Oct. 12-20). All three played singles, while James and Myers were selected to compete in the main draw of the doubles bracket. Gordon picked up a victory in the prequalifying round, while James and Myers were runners-up in the doubles consolation.
In the annual Boilermaker Classic (Oct. 19-20), Purdue won three of four singles flights, as Wessenberg and fellow seniors Bryan Harris and Jason Smith were all champions.
Next up was the ITA/Rolex Region IV Championships (Nov. 1-4). At this tournament, Gordon kicked it into high gear, winning seven straight matches to claim the crown and earn an automatic berth into the main draw of the ITA National Indoors in Dallas, Texas. James and Myers, who won the Region IV doubles championship in 1995, made it to the finals before surrendering.
This concluded an impressive fall season for Purdue. And the tennis world took notice, ranking Gordon as the top player and James and Myers as the second-best doubles team in the region. In addition, the Boilers earned a team ranking of sixth.
James and Myers started the spring season off with a bang, winning the Milwaukee Tennis Classic on Jan. 12. Two weeks later, James and Myers each found themselves alone on the court, battling in the semifinals of the Big Ten Singles Championships (Jan. 25-26).
All the hard work in the fall and early spring season seemed to pay off when Purdue began dual match play. First up: a match at Miami (Ohio). The Boilers came away with a 4-3 victory over the Redskins and were on their way to a spotless 6-0 start. Purdue could do no wrong in the month of February, and neither could James. His blemish-free 10-0 record in both singles and doubles in that 28-day period garnered him Big Ten Athlete-of-the-Month honors.
Purdue began March on a winning note, defeating Wisconsin 5-2 on March 1 for its first Big Ten victory of the 1997 season. Despite dropping a match to Northwestern the following day, the Boilers rebounded with a non-conference win over Louisville, preparing them for their spring trip to sunny California.
In the Golden State, Purdue fell to UC-Irvine and UC-Santa Barbara before downing San Diego State by a convincing 6-1 margin. And down the stretch they came.
The Boilers closed out March with two Big Ten wins over Michigan State and Michigan. The victory over the Wolverines was Purdue's first since 1938 and only the second in Boilermaker tennis history.
Penn State, Indiana and Ohio State were the next Big Ten foes to fall to Purdue. Illinois tripped up the Boilers, but the Old Gold & Black responded with consecutive wins over Minnesota and Iowa. The 5-2 win over the Hawkeyes on April 20 gave Purdue an 8-2 record in conference play, making the Boilers the No. 2 seed in the Big Ten Championships hosted by Michigan State.
The Boilers fell in their opening round match to Minnesota, but climbed through the consolation bracket to take fifth place, their highest finish in 11 years.
Following the Big Ten tournament, Purdue was invited to compete in the NCAA Regional Championship, marking the first time any Boilermaker men's tennis team has received such an invitation in the 72 years of the program's existence. Once again, the Golden Gophers rained on Purdue's parade, but it did not cast a cloud over everything this team accomplished.
The 1996-97 season saw Cris James and Derek Myers ranked as high as seventh in the nation in the ITA/Rolex Collegiate Tennis Rankings (March 2). The Boilers climbed as high as 48th (March 24 & April 30) in the nation and were fourth in the region in mid-April. This season saw Jamie Gordon earn an automatic bid to the main draw in the ITA National Indoors, one of collegiate tennis' grand slam events. It saw James and Myers win the prestigious Milwaukee Tennis Classic and receive their second invitation in as many years to the NCAA Championships. This season saw a Purdue team made of fighters, who won four 4-3 matches in Big Ten play.
This was a team and this was a season. Both were remarkable.