Second-year men’s tennis coach Charles Merzbacher will have mixed feelings as he leads his vastly improving Huskies into the Rolex Midwest Championship Invitationals at South Bend, Ind., Friday.

Why the mixed feelings? Merzbacher has improved his team so much, one of his players (Erik Andersch) actually beat the coach, a former touring pro, in a set 6-3.

Last year the Northern Star wrote, “In order for Merzbacher to reach his goals (to make the Huskies one of the top teams in the Midwest) he will have to take a lot of beatings—from his own players.”

It happened in the Recreation Center Wednesday night. After practice, Merzbacher and Andersch decided to play a set. Andersch has been struggling as of late in singles play. At one point last year, Andersch was playing the No. 1 position on the team. This year, he’s been dumped all the way to No. 4 by his teammates. But, after drubbing his coach, Andersch might have gained the confidence he has been lacking.

Andersch was playing “in the zone” against Merzbacher. Andersch jumped out to a surprising 4-2 lead after breaking Merzbacher’s serve for the first time. Being the veteran player, Merzbacher came right back and broke Andersch. Both held their next serves to make the score 5-3. Then, Andersch surprisingly broke Merzbacher again to finish off the set.

“There’s a first time for everything,” Andersch declared. Yes, it was the first time Merzbacher lost to one of his players. Being the competitive player Merzbacher is, he may not be happy about losing. But, he has to be happy about the improvement the Huskies are making.

Especially since the Huskies are heading into the toughest tournament they’ll be playing this year. The Huskies have qualified four players to face the Midwest’s finest. The No. 1 doubles duo of Andersch and Greg O’Neil has been selected and Mats Persson and Dustin Dobrin have qualified for singles.

“Getting four singles players and a doubles combination invited says a lot about the type of fall season we’ve had. We certainly hope to advance as many people as far as we possibly can,” Merzbacher said.

Getting four singles players and a doubles combination invited says a lot about the type of fall season we’ve had.

Charles Merzbacher, men’s tennis coach