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| Ryan DeNooyer (Kalamazoo, Mich.) |
If Calvin College’s men’s tennis team is going to challenge
Hope College for the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association’s
second spot next spring, it will need another year of steady improvement
from Ryan DeNooyer.
DeNooyer spent this past spring getting back into form after limping
through his freshman campaign on a partially torn ACL. The sophomore from
Kalamazoo Christian High School initially injured his knee playing basketball,
but didn’t realize the ACL was torn until the tennis season started
last spring.
Even with the injury, DeNooyer paired up with Tom Zeilstra for doubles
sporting a leg brace, but didn’t have enough mobility to play singles.
"I had never really been injured in my life except for maybe a sprained
ankle," DeNooyer said. "So I didn’t realize all of the
work you have to put in to get your knee or any other injury back to normal.
It’s tough. Your body just can’t do all the things it used
to be able to do, and you have to put a lot of time and work into the
rehabilitation."
After a year of nearly constant rehab, DeNooyer returned to pair with
David Sneller in doubles action for the Knights, amassing a 15-8 regular-season
record and taking third place at the MIAA championships in the No. 3 slot.
DeNooyer’s biggest comeback, however, was his return to form in
singles.
"I would say that from the beginning to the end of the year I slowly
got better," DeNooyer said. "And at the end of the year I hit
my peak. Going into the tournament I think I had a six- or seven-game
winning streak, so I definitely got back into it and hit my stride as
the year went on."
As the Knights’ No. 6 singles player this spring, DeNooyer finished
second in the MIAA to Kalamazoo College’s Luke Marker in both the
regular season and the conference championship. DeNooyer went up 3-0 on
Marker in the regular-season match before losing, and he took Marker to
the limit in the finals before bowing 7-5, 7-5, convincing himself that
he can again play with the best in the league.
"Everybody knows that ‘K’ has great players, and they
had a great team again this year," DeNooyer said. "And I proved
to myself that I can beat (Marker) if I just think it. If you go up against
(Kalamazoo), you always think you’re going to lose. But that was
the wake-up call for me that it’s possible to beat them, and if
it happens again next time, I’ll take advantage of it."
The Knights, who finished third in the MIAA in 2004, will continue gunning
for Kalamazoo – the team that’s won at least a share of the
MIAA title every year since 1936 – but a more realistic goal, DeNooyer
says, is to beat out rival Hope College for second place. |
