Winners of four straight Big South regular season titles and three consecutive tournament crowns, expectations for the 2009-10 Radford men’s tennis team weren’t any different.
Under the directions of 14-year head coach Mike Anderson, the No. 56 Highlanders showed their youth early, dropping two of their first 10 matches, including five to nationally-ranked foes.
After opening the 2010 spring with its first 13 matches (10 duels) away from home, including the program’s first-ever appearance in the ITA National Indoor, Radford put its 34-match home winning streak on the line against Elon in mid March.
Not only did the Highlanders avenge one of only three regular season losses a year ago, their win over the Phoenix began a stretch of nine wins in 11 matches to close out the regular season with an 11-10 overall record and their fifth consecutive Big South regular season title.
Along with winning 41 of its last 42 home contests, Radford entered the 2010 Big South Conference Championships having won 31 of 33 against league competition.
Prior to hosting the league tournament, a number of Highlanders were honored at the postseason awards ceremony. Anderson was selected Big South Coach of the Year for a record fifth consecutive season, while sophomore Igor Ogrizek was named the Scholar Athlete of the Year.
In addition to the conference’s top academic honor, Ogrizek joined Ivan Salec and Thomas Dehaen on the all-conference squad.
Despite falling to Winthrop 4-3 in the Big South Championship, Radford’s Ivan Salec received an at-large berth in the 2010 NCAA Singles Championships. Ranked 79th in the most recent ITA Singles Rankings, Salec finished the spring 16-7 at the top position.
In the fall, the 2008 Big South Freshman of the Year and three-time all-conference performer grabbed national attention with wins over the 4th, 12th, 39th, 50th and 73rd ranked players in the country at the D'Novo ITA All-American Championships in Tulsa, Okla.