History for the Michigan State men’s tennis program was made in San Diego earlier this month.
The doubles pairing of junior Max Sheldon and sophomore Ozan Baris won the program’s first ever national title at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Fall National Championships after beating Connor and Codie van Schalkwyk from Old Dominion in the final.
It was a historic victory for the men’s tennis program. Something that could create a ripple effect long-term and lead to sustained success.
“I think more than anything, it just shows the work that we’ve been putting in and where the program is headed,” Baris said. “It’s gonna become a standard to kind of be in those situations more and more frequently. I think that’s the biggest thing for myself and for Max (Sheldon) as well, it wasn’t too much a surprise for us. We felt like we were one of the top teams there, and we expected that if we played well, we would have a good opportunity of winning the whole thing. Luckily, we were able to get that result, so we’ll just continue treading down that path.”
Resiliency was a key theme for Baris and Sheldon throughout the tournament. The pair dropped the second set in the round of 32, but fought back to win the all-important tiebreak. Baris and Sheldon dropped the second set in the round of 16 and saved multiple match points in the tiebreak set. In the finals, the duo went down 5-4 in the first set, but battled back to win the set 7-5 and then won the match in the second set.
“I think that was definitely one of our best attributes throughout the tournament,” Baris said about the resiliency that they showed throughout the tournament. “I think having that second round where we saved multiple match points, it kind of just makes you feel a little more at ease and then when you get into those situations again, you’re just a lot more comfortable with it. After that match, in the following round, we were down quadruple set point on their serve and we saved that … another set point (saved) in the finals. We were just kind of used to the situations and we were able to get through them all right.”
Sheldon said that he and Baris were “escape artists” the entire tournament. But that wasn’t by chance. It was a testament to their ability to refocus and dial in during the “big points" of their matches.
“We were kind of escape artists the whole tournament,” Sheldon said. “I mean we just really focused on playing smarter during the big points and just keeping the fundamentals strong. I think that’s what really helped us succeed is we just playing tougher on the tougher points.”
Resiliency was a theme that assistant coach and former all-American at Michigan State Mike Flowers, who coached Baris and Sheldon to the national title, stressed before the tournament began.
“That was something we had talked about throughout the week,” Flowers said. “There was always going to be tough moments along the path in a tournament like that. It’s more of how you respond to it. It’s gonna happen. And if you’re ready for it, whoever handles it best, usually ends up doing the best. Credit to those two because any time they were hit with adversity, they responded extremely well.”
The next step after this week’s Capital City Tennis Classic in East Lansing is the spring season. The Spartans will be looking to parlay the fall national title won by Baris and Sheldon into an NCAA title this spring.
“Obviously, the level (of play) is there for us,” Sheldon said. “And we just gotta stay focused, keep doing our thing. There’s a lot of season left, so we just gotta keep working hard and obviously, NCAA Championships is the goal and we believe we can do it.”
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