Holy Cross men's and women's teams to compete in NAIA tennis Nationals for first time
SOUTH BEND — Eric Mahone has built the Holy Cross College tennis programs into something special.
The Saints, who boast a pair of teams with special talent and international flavor, are poised to compete in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) National Championships for the first time ever.
Mahone, a South Bend native, unfortunately, will have to miss out on the history making moment.
At least in person.
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A Penn High School graduate and former coach at Saint Joseph, Mahone will be home as his wife Brianne prepares to deliver their second child.
Assistant coach Jessica Simeri will direct the men's and women's teams in Mobile, Alabama for the NAIA event May 16-20. Simeri, who was a captain and played No. 2 singles on coach Bill Mountford's South Bend Saint Joseph state championship team in 2010 and then captained the Purdue club team, is nominated for the ITA National Assistant Coach of the Year honor.
"Our teams are in great hands with Jessica," said Mahone of the unique situation. "This is extremely special. We've been working the past five years to achieve this goal and we thought this was our year to do it.
"It's been a long process to build our programs, but each year we've gotten more talented players. This year it was a coming together of the talent that we have."
The Saints defeated Cardinal Stritch on the men's side and St. Francis (Illinois) on the women's side in the finals of the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference (CCAC) Tournament at the end of April to secure berths in the Nationals. Both teams lost to their tourney finals foes earlier in the regular season.
"Our emphasis was on the tourney match, that was the one we wanted to win," Mahone said. "We didn't put a lot of stake into the first match. We made the necessary adjustments and made sure we were peaking in the tournament."
The Saints boast a talented lineup. Perry Gregg, a sophomore from Chicago, is the top player for the men's team, which is 12-3 and ranked No. 19. He is poised to be an All-American for the second straight year and has lost just once in the past two seasons. Other key contributors include junior Will Page, sophomore Ciaran McCarthy and freshman Polis Koursaros.
Gregg was named as the CCAB Player of the Year for the second straight season. He went 12-0 in singles play and earned All-CCAC honors for both singles and doubles. He is ranked No. 1 in the ITA NAIA East rankings and No. 4 nationally. Freshman Luca McManus was named All-CCAC in singles and junior Laurenz Flender All-CCAC in doubles for the Saints.
The women's team, which is 12-7 and ranked No. 18, is led by freshman Victoria Savvides, who hails from Cyprus. The junior trio of Kia Carvalho-Landell, Helga Lopez and Dianna Maillotte are also strong players for the Saints.
Mahone credits leaders such as captains Will Page, a junior from St. Joseph, Michigan, and Ryan Leer for leadership on his men's team and captains Anna Beer and Maillotte and Carvalho-Landell for the women's squad.
Mahone has has players from a multitude of countries, including Germany, Canada, Ireland, Switzerland, Cyprus, Malaysia, Ecuador and France.
"Recruiting tennis players is different," Mahone noted. "The talent pool is all over so you are truly recruiting the world for players. I built contacts from my previous coaching jobs and used that to recruit players to get us going here. I recruit versus Division 1 programs and to be honest I'm in a better place here recruiting than I was at a Division 1 program.
"We go for players who are truly students first and international players come from some great academic backgrounds.
"It's a positive thing we have here. We like having players from different cultures. It's pretty cool and they have molded well together."
Mahone guided the Saint Joseph boys team to a state runner-up finish in 2002. He then had coaching stops as an assistant at the University of Chicago and the head coach at Dayton University before landing back at Holy Cross, where he attended school before playing tennis at IUPUI.
"I love being at Holy Cross," said Mahone, whose teams will depart South Bend Friday. "It's my dream job and it feels like home. It's a special place to me."
Mahone, who became a tennis pro at age 19, says it's all about winning that first one at the Nationals. The event includes 24 men's teams and 24 women's squads. The men's field also includes No. 18 Grace College, while the No. 17 Indiana Wesleyan women's team is also in the field.
The men's team will face the College of Coastal Georgia in its first match Tuesday in Alabama. The women are paired with Loyola (Louisiana) to begin the tournament.
"We have the talent to make a serious run, but it really is to take one match at a time," Mahone said. "We want to win that first one and see where it goes.
"We want to go as deep into the tourney as possible and just keep building from this. We also want to solidify our place there and prove that we belong. With the talent we have on our teams, I think we do."
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Holy Cross men's and women's tennis teams are in NAIA Nationals
