Neon streaks fly rhythmically to the beats of shoe skids and racket whirs as DePaul’s men’s tennis team wraps up practice. Following their first Big East match of the year — a 5-2 win over Marquette on Feb. 1 — the 10-man team prepares for a midweek road trip by drilling footwork, volleys and serves alike.

Despite the draining training, the stimulating sounds of the court are spliced with quick jokes and chuckles from the players, with silence ringing down only when head coach Matt Brothers calls his squad in for instruction.

Currently in his 18th season at DePaul, Brothers has taken the men’s program a long way in recent years. Winning three Big East titles over the last four seasons, the team has completely reset their expectations heading into the heart of their match play schedule. 

“Winning a conference tournament again is not really a goal, we see that as our standard,” Brothers said. “The goal is to position ourselves to win rounds in the NCAA tournament.”

The coach is not the only leader on the team who believes that recent success should recalibrate the team’s aspirations. 

“Winning the Big East … has become the standard, but now we want to take a step further and try to make some noise in the NCAA tournament,” said senior captain Sven Moser, who hails from Switzerland by way of the Rafael Nadal International School.

With strong coach-player alignment, the team has cohesiveness from top to bottom, something that is needed with their young roster, Brothers said.

“Those guys have to be playing and contributing,” Brothers said. 

Between freshmen, previously redshirted players and transfers, half of the team’s lineup is new to the squad this season. With such a dramatic overhaul from last year’s conference-winning group, the team agrees that leadership from players and coaches combined will be essential to this team’s success.

Senior Matteo Iaquinto is proud to find himself in a leadership role, saying that it pushes him to “behave a certain way” and “show the young guys how everything is done.” That’s similar to how the older players mentored the Palermo, Italy, native upon joining the team.

With the culture that Brothers has carefully crafted over the past several seasons, the selflessness of the program’s leaders is on full display. Players from all over the world live, eat, practice, study, travel and relax together, building a familial culture that is built on “‘we’ guys, not ‘me’ guys,” Brothers said. 

In turn, this allows his players to trust, help and look out for each other, he added, especially with elder statesmen players such as Moser, Iaquinto and fourth-year Jona Gitschel, a back-to-back academic All-Conference Team selection.

“The examples that the older guys set before when I was new shaped me and the person I am,” said Moser, who finished with a winning record in both single and double events last year. “I just want to be the same for the new guys too.”

Iaquinto also wishes to reciprocate the leadership that helped him as a younger athlete. 

“I had an upperclassman that was a great example for me, and they made me adjust very quickly …. As a senior, you have to be the example,” said Iaquinto, who was named a unanimous All-Conference First-Team player and the Most Outstanding Player of the Big East tournament a season ago.

Beyond senior leadership, Brothers also strives to offer strong support for his players on and off the court. 

“I’m old enough to be a parent to them. I really look after these kids like they’re my own … ,” Brothers said. “I want to help them in life just as much as I want to help them pursue their goals in tennis.”

Moser said he felt an “instant connection” the first time he spoke with his coach. “I feel like he really wants the best not just for me but for all the players,” he said.

The team also strives to achieve academic success. This year, the team established a self-administered goal of a cumulative 3.75 GPA, with strong results thus far, Brothers said.

The Blue Demons still have the majority of their conference schedule ahead of them, and the DePaul faithful may have a role to play yet in the team’s push for tournament success.

“People have this idea about tennis that it’s this quiet, golf-clap kind of sport, and at the collegiate level. It’s not like that at all,” Brothers said. “Fans can really play a part in the match …. They can be cheering loud, and you can see that you’re getting underneath an opponent’s skin.”

DePaul is set to travel to Arizona and Indiana before hosting Northern Illinois, Belmont and Eastern Kentucky from Feb. 21-22 at XS Tennis Village on the South Side.

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