The freshmen made an impact this season, helping the Cyclones move up two spots in the regional tournament and finish strong.

"Overall, I feel the season went really well. I feel we played really good tennis against some solid opponents," said Head Coach David Souza, in his third season leading the program. "What especially went well was my players' attitudes going into facing some very tough opponents from top schools."

Freshman Jaykumar Patel (Oak Forest) was solid at No. 4 singles, going 8-1 at the position. In one tough team matchup with College of Lake County, he was the only victory for the Cyclones. He finished second overall at the NJCAA Region 4 Tournament and was the driving force for helping the team stay close in meets, according to Souza.

Moraine Valley went 6-3 overall and 3-2 in the Illinois Skyway Collegiate Conference. At regionals, the team finished fourth, which was two positions higher than last season. Additional fourth place individual finishes at regionals came from No. 2 singles Lukas Cepronas (Stagg), No. 5 Dhrumil Prajapati (Oak Forest), No. 6 Ronak Prajapati (Oak Forest), No. 2 doubles Ixit Prajapati (Oak Forest)/Patel and No. 3 doubles D. Prajapati/R. Prajapati.

Ixit Prajapati and Henry Witek (Andrew) were the lone sophomores who will move on, leaving six freshmen to jockey for positions next season. Souza wants to improve mental toughness within intense matches for next year but is looking forward to the future.

"I'm happy with our season and very excited for next year with lots of changes happening in our region," Souza said.