by McKenzie Quirin

The Penn State Altoona men's tennis team enters its 2024 spring schedule with high hopes, after competing in a pair of matches last October to get its 2023-24 season underway. After the break between the team's fall matches and its main season in the spring, the Lions will look to improve their performance.

Sixth-year head coach Megan Stern anticipates her team has made substantial progress working on doubles play, which will be important to the team's success in the spring.

"Yes, we started out 0-2 last fall, but our two losses were very competitive. We have worked a lot on doubles since the fall, which will make a big difference this spring. We always discuss how crucial doubles matches are, as we want to start each match off with doubles wins before moving on to singles," she said. "I'm excited to play St. Vincent again, as we're thirsty for a redemption win after losing 5-4 in the fall."

The Lions' eight-player roster is bolstered by four returners from last season, plus four newcomers. The four returners, juniors Casey Hess (Annville, PA/Annville-Cleona) and Parth Raval (Mumbai, India/Thakur Polytechnic) and sophomores Nick Beard (Manns Choice, PA/Bedford) and Emmett Hibbs (Richfield, PA/East Juniata), were named to the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference's All-Conference team last season.

According to Stern, Hess and Raval are the Lions' team captains and will provide support, guidance and wisdom to the newcomers on and off the court.

In the 2022-23 season, Hess became Penn State Altoona's all-time leader in singles wins with 25 in his career, while posting a 13-2 overall record in singles matches and a 9-8 overall record in doubles matches. Stern praises Hess for his accomplishments and believes the team's strengths center around the returners and freshman Andrew Chronister (York, PA/Dallastown).

"Casey Hess has had a stellar first two seasons at Altoona. He's improved and moved up the ladder in our lineup, starting at three by freshman year, and now serving as No. 1 his junior year. I'm excited for him to continue to shatter records and dominate in both singles and doubles again this season," Stern said. "Emmett gives us a lot of consistency in the middle of our lineup, as well as No. 3 doubles. I think our strengths include our consistency at the top of our singles lineups in Hess, Chronister and Beard. They're all very consistent players in singles, and solid in doubles play."

The four newcomers are freshmen Kadyn Carey (Altoona, PA/Altoona), Chronister, Wilhelm Grot (Tyrone, PA/Tyrone) and Jackson Newell (Leechburg, PA/Kiski). Stern remains hopeful that the newcomers will impact the team's performance overall, as they add depth to the lineup. She is eager to see their skill come to life after witnessing what the team has done in practice.

"I am very excited to see the success in our newcomers, as they add a lot of depth to our lineup. I am especially excited for Chronister, as I believe he will be competing for the conference's newcomer of the year, as he is a very solid and fundamentally sound player," she said. "A lot of the newcomers have grown since the fall, both in skill and confidence. Freshman Will Grot has improved his skills at the net, which will be crucial for our No. 3 doubles position. Kadyn Carey has gotten more consistent in practice and is solid at the net. Chronister will make a very solid and consistent No. 2 singles player and pairs very well with Hess at No. 1 doubles. Jackson Newell has also improved since the fall season."

Stern and the men's tennis team are confident in maintaining unity, practice and motivation to fulfill their goal for this season, which is to win the AMCC championship match.

"We cultivate unity by practicing as a team and discussing our season goals both individually and as a team. We talk about previous seasons and what we can do to learn from our losses and build on our wins.

We know we are one of the top teams in the conference and have been getting better each season. We are highly motivated to win the conference this year after finishing as the runner-up the last two seasons," Stern said.