Cheney, Wash. - The Eastern Washington University men's tennis team concluded its season against Weber State on Saturday, April 16, losing 7-0 in a match where there was more to the story than just the final score.
Eastern finishes the season at 8-18 and 4-7 in the Big Sky Conference, placing eighth in the standings.
The match was Senior Day for the Eagles, as they celebrated Eduardo Bringold's final match of his EWU career. From 2013-2016, Bringold amassed 36 wins in singles and 30 wins in doubles. This year he led the team in singles victories with a 10-15 record in dual matches.
In the doubles competition, the team of junior Luke Ness and junior Rendell Burghart defeated Hou-En Chen and Landon Barlow 6-4. In singles, Victor Pereira battled out of the No. 1 spot, falling to Jakub Gewert 5-7, 6-3, 10-5. Bringold took the opening set against Chen 6-3, and was just a few points away from the win in the second set. Ultimately, he fought hard in his final collegiate tennis match, but dropped the last two sets 6-4, 6-4.
Comments from Head Coach Steve Clark
From Day One, since I embarked on shaping the EWU Men's Tennis culture less than two years ago, I have espoused numerous facets. (1). FOCUS (Fundamentals mentally, technically, tactically, etc; Opportunity to improve via a tougher schedule, daily practice as competition, etc; Conditioning so we can battle unwaveringly; Unity in our team chemistry and effort; Success comes with all that); (2). Always (if you always give your best, you will sometimes play your best and one day be the best); (3). PRPR (Positive physical response, Relaxation, preparation, and ritual); and (4). the "dash" (what are you doing with your life, your time, your gifts and talents, etc? Those still hold true and we have to measure today to those standards.
But first we want to thank all the fans, students and staff (and Swoop) that came by to watch us battle. Thanks to Rosa's Pizza for the eats for folks and for Keith, Kevin and crew for their match prep.  It was a bitter sweet day for the Eags despite having the support.
Bitter was the Eags seeing graduating senior Eduardo Bringold play his last match as an Eagle, but the sweetness is we know he will do great things after graduating and is a true friend to all his teammates. Sweet was the battle all the guys had, digging in and fighting to the end. The bitterness was the loss. True champions leave it all out there and the guys did. I have a mantra about champions that I coined: "true champions take the blame for a loss and deflect credit and accolades. Losers accept accolades while deflecting blame." That is true champions are not afraid to say "my bad, I should have gotten that" and do not say "my partner missed" this or that. Our loss will only motivate the guys to get better in the off season when that comes. They know where they fell short today--whether it was not being aggressive enough, or needing to shore up a stroke or getting better control of their between point time and emotions, etc. They own up to it and that makes them champions already. Striving to be champions every day, with all its bumps and bruises will pay off in the long run. So despite some leads in doubles and singles left on the court, despite the numerous break points left on the table, and literally a 4-3 win our way if we had capitalized, we will work hard still. It is amazing how points and games an hour prior mean when the score is tallied. The scoring system in tennis is by far the most brutal of all sports (Allen Fox, PhD and former hall of fame coach has written clearly on this) and players have to deal with it personally. There is no clock to expire and save your from misery and the pressure to come back. There are no time outs to stop momentum. There are no ties. There are no scrimmages that don't count. There are no substitutions if they are stinking up the court. And all your efforts can literally amount to zero (score-wise) every single point, game and set (e.g. you can literally play hundreds of points, run miles of stop and start sprinting, and have the most incredible points, winning 1/2 of them and still have no score that helps you win. E.g. you can win 3 points in a game and still be down 0-1. You can win 6 games in a set and still be down 0 sets to 1. You can 1 set and still lose the match having a 0 to contribute to the team). It is brutal and what players have to realize is that 1% is often all it takes to win a game, a set, a match and then a team match. It all builds up. Today we lost the 1%. The team score does not reflect the battle despite the close doubles sets and the singles 3-setters. So we press on to get better on the court mentally, technically, and tactically, and stronger and faster in the weight room.
