ST. JOSEPH, Minn. – As the 2022-23 season opens, the College of Saint Benedict Tennis Team (0-0, 0-0 MIAC) is ready to get started, according to Interim Head Coach Jack Bowe.

"I know I am super excited to get going with this team, which has depth and talent across the roster," said Bowe, a veteran coach, who will direct the Saint Ben's team for the first time since coaching the Bennies in the mid 1990s. "We open with a conference match up and we should match up well. It is a team that has a lot of strengths in various aspects, so we are ready to get underway," said Bowe, who will lead both the Bennies and the Saint John's men's team in 2023.

A year ago, the Bennies finished 9-9 with a 5-5 conference mark which placed them sixth. In the conference tourney last year, CSB dropped a 5-1 decision to No. 3 seeded St. Catherine.

Upcoming Schedule - CSB faces St. Scholastic Saturday

CSB will open the season against the College of St. Scholastica (1-2, 0-1 MIAC) at Sta-Fit in Sartell, Minn. After the opening league match up, CSB heads to Orlando, Fla., for their spring break trip as they face Misericordia University on March 6, Covenant College on March 7, Piedmont University on March 9 and Cedarville on March 10. Then, they return and face St. Catherine on March 17 in St. Paul, Minn., before returning home to meet St. Olaf on Saturday, March 18.

St. Scholastica opened the season with a 4-3 win over DII Bemidji State in Duluth, Minn. Then, they lost to Minnesota-Duluth, 5-0 on Feb. 4 and a 6-3 decision to Macalester on Feb. 10 in Minneapolis.

CSB returnees accounted for 75 percent of singles wins a year ago

CSB returns much of its team from a year ago when they finished 61-43 overall in singles with a 35-24 league mark. In doubles, CSB was 29-24 with a 16-13 conference mark.

Leading CSB will be No. 1 singles standout Ashley Tarrolly, a sophomore from St. Cloud, Minn. A year ago, she was 5-2 in number one singles matchups.  Playing at No. 2 will be junior Peyton Kopel of Foley, Minn. Kopel was 9-9 a year ago and 6-4 in league play as she played both at No. 2 and No. 3.

Sophomore Greta Nesbit of Le Sueur, Minn., is scheduled to play No. 3 on Saturday as she was 11-7 overall with a 5-5 league mark a year ago. At No. 4 will be senior Anne Bowe of St. Cloud, Minn. Slotted at No. 5 will be Jane Bodensteiner, a sophomore form Palatine, Ill. Playing No. 4-6 a year ago, she was 11-4 overall and 7-3 in conference play. At No. 6 will be junior Maria Bedford, who was 3-1 a year ago in singles. Sophomore Sophia Jonas will not play this Saturday as she is with the basketball team at Bethel. A year ago, she was 7-5 overall with a 6-2 MIAC mark in playing primarily at No. 5.

With doubles match ups tentative, the No. 1 team is Tarrolly-Kopel who had a 1-0 record a year ago. Overall Tarrolly was 4-2 in doubles with a 1-0 conference mark. Kopel finished 8-10 in doubles with a 4-6 mark in league. At No. 1 doubles she was on a team that finished 5-7.

Of note, Kopel and Jonas advanced to the finals at the ITA Regional Championships hosted by Gustavus Adolphus College. The duo made an incredible run in the tournament, marking the highest CSB finish in recent memory. The unranked Saint Ben's doubles team of Kopel and Jonas started their tournament run with an 8-1 win over Elise Bierbaum and Annika Hillstrom of Bethel. Kopel and Jonas advanced to take on Giana Apostoli and Xingchen Liu of Carthage College, where they posted an 8-5 win over the No. 9 seed. The Bennies advanced to take on third seeded UW-Whitewater where CSB advanced due to an injury default by Whitewater. Kopel and Jonas then battled fifth seed Allison Szalay and Halle Rosentreter of Gustavus where the Bennie duo posted an 8-7(5) victory to advance to the final. The magical run came to an end falling 8-1 to top-seeded Amelia Asfaw and Mariam Nechiporuk of Carleton.

The No. 2 doubles team is tentatively set up as Bowe and Nesbit. Nesbit was 8-5 in doubles with a 6-3 mark in the league play. She was 8-4 at No. 3 doubles a year ago.
 
The No. 3 doubles squad is tentatively set as Bodensteiner and Bedford, who had a 3-1 record a year ago, including 2-0 at No. 3 and 1-1 at No. 2. Overall, in doubles, Bedford was 11-6 overall and 6-3 in conference at primarily No. 3 (10-4). Bodensteiner was 10-7 overall in doubles with a 6-4 mark in league play. She was 7-7 at No. 2 doubles and 3-0 at No. 3 doubles.

Bowe returns to lead Saint Ben's
Bowe served as the Bennies' head coach for seven years in the mid-1990s, and guided CSB to top-five MIAC finishes in five of those seven seasons. CSB took third with a 9-2 conference mark and a 16-5 overall record in 1994-95 and finished fourth in his final season in 1996-97. Bowe earned MIAC Coach of the Year honors with CSB in 1993. After leaving CSB in 1997, Bowe took over the Saint John's tennis program, and he has remained there ever since. Since taking over at SJU in the 1998 season, Bowe is 228-231 overall and 115-103 in MIAC duals. The Johnnies have finished in the top five of the conference standings in five of the last seven seasons, including a pair of third-place finishes in 2018 and 2019. Bowe earned MIAC Coach of the Year honors with the Johnnies in 2003, 2019 and again in 2022. Five athletes earned All-MIAC doubles honors and two more earned All-MIAC singles accolades under Bowe's watch in 2022.