Last week, our men’s first team travelled south to Exeter, where they played against their men’s second team. Exeter University is one of the leading tennis universities in the country and is over double the size of Cardiff Met! The team consisted of Alex Hyman, Evan Kennedy, Will Dunlop and, first team reserve, James Mundy. Unfortunately, Joel Greatrex was unavailable due to an ongoing wrist injury, but James was keen to give himself a chance with the top team.

After the first two doubles matches, the score was 1-1, as our first team pairing, Alex and Evan, were able to get a convincing straight set victory, however Will and James lost in a battle against Exeter’s second pair. James, as a usual second team player, was playing above the level he was used to, however managed to produce one of his best BUCS performances to date, unfortunately losing in a tight match to Exeter’s fourth player. Will played his longest match ever in BUCS competitions, lasting over 3 hours, where he lost in a heartbreaking three set thriller. Although he would have loved to win, he was happy to raise his game against a great player and is looking forward to the challenge in the return fixture. Evan and Alex both took quite comfortable victories against Exeter’s top two players. They were both pleased with their performance, and most importantly the result, as they were able to beat top quality players without much trouble. These two victories gave Cardiff Met a draw away against one of the best teams in the competition. This meant another point on the league table, and more importantly, it gave the players confidence to keep producing great performances and come away with results against the very top universities.