Coming off a losing streak last year, the Longwood men’s tennis team has bounced back in head coach Pierre Tafelski’s second year at the helm, achieving their first winning season in the program’s Division I history and first Big South wins.
The Lancers overall record in the 2015-16 season was 7-15. This season, Longwood has gone 9-2 so far, already surpassing last season’s total wins by two. The Lancers have also gone 3-1 in their Big South conference play, whereas last season they went winless.
The men’s tennis team went through a coaching change in the 2015-16 season. Pierre Tafelski took the head coaching position in August of 2015 and coached his first season with the Lancers last year.
Before coming to Longwood, Tafelski coached as the men’s and women’s assistant coach at Division II powerhouse Hawaii Pacific. There, he was named Division II National Assistant Coach of the Year and helped push both the men’s and women’s programs to the top ten in Division II rankings.
“There has been a lot of turnover in terms of coaches and seeing that challenge was a big motivation for me to come (to Longwood) and work my way in and try to turn things around and create something more positive than in the past,” said Tafelski.
Since his time here at Longwood, Tafelski has begun to work building up the men’s team and improving team culture.
“Coming in the first year you have to create a culture. Success starts with strong culture and making the players understand the core values and standards/expectations,” said Tafelski. “The first year it takes time for the players to understand the coach’s expectations, but my goal was to make the players understand what the culture is about and what is going to be next.”
Tafelski recruited and brought in four new players for this year including three freshman and one junior transfer. The four returners to this year’s team are senior Switzerland native Florian Uffer, senior Bulgaria native Rosen Ilchev, junior Indonesia native Lachlan Manser and sophomore from England, Julian Farthing.
“The following year is different because I brought in four new players so the team is very young, and now it is actually time to apply our values and standards. Also, the returners have to help me with that mission and make the new players understand what our culture is all about and apply it on the court,” said Tafelski.
The Lancers have gotten a fresh start with a new coach and four new players on the team. Senior Florian Uffer has been here three years and experienced the change in team dynamic.
“Our team competitiveness has changed a lot,” said Uffer. “We have changed our whole approach to things and how we practice.”
Before Tafelski, Uffer felt the team was not expected to do or achieve much.
“He actually gave us goals, before we just went to matches and would try to do the best that we could. Now we actually have goals and something to work towards to, and the intensity and motivation went up,” said Uffer.
Despite all of the challenges the tennis team has faced with consecutive years of coaching staff instability, they have found their niche and come alive this season.
“Our team energy has been a lot higher this year on and especially off the courts,” said Uffer. “Having a record like this now, we are more positive and optimistic on and off the court.”
