In Luke Jensen’s mind, his entire coaching career at Syracuse has been leading up to this.

Jensen, the head of the Syracuse tennis team, said that he was brought here four years ago to win championships. He’ll have his chance to fulfill those expectations this weekend when the SU begins the Big East tournament in South Bend, Ind.

‘(The goal) from the first year was to win it and to get players in the mindset to win it,’ Jensen said. ‘I am so proud of this team because now we truly have the mindset that I need them to have.’

The Orange (19-2, 7-0 Big East) enters the tournament as the No.4 seed, and will play Friday against the winner of the match between No. 5 seed Marquette and No. 12 seed UConn.

Despite the undefeated conference record, SU has yet to play the Big East’s top three seeds — Notre Dame, South Florida and DePaul. The Fighting Irish are ranked No. 5 in the nation, USF is ranked No. 24 and DePaul just fell out of the polls this week. The Orange would have to face the host Notre Dame in the semifinals if both teams win their first matches. The Irish have been the No. 1 seed at the conference tournament a staggering 14 straight times dating back to 1996.

The challenge is there, but members of the team think that this season indicates that something special is possible. The Orange set the school record with 19 wins this year and currently riding a 13-game winning streak. Considering those achievements, the notoriously confident Jensen is convinced that his team has what it takes to overpower anyone in its way.
      
‘It’s going to take a massive effort by people and talent that I haven’t seen in the college game to beat us,’ Jensen said. ‘It doesn’t matter what the situation is, we’re better.’
    
Jensen’s confidence is backed by his team’s results this season, but history is not on his side. The Orange has not finished higher than fifth in the conference championships since Jensen took over in 2007, and has not won the tournament since 1985.
    
But those 25 years without a trophy have only boosted Jensen’s appetite. A solid finish in conference is not enough anymore.

The winner of the Big East tournament receives an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, and Jensen sees his conference foes as stepping-stones to the bigger prize.

‘I want the automatic berth,’ Jensen said. ‘I want to go in there and I want to push some more Big East teams around, and I want to get into the NCAA Tournament.’

Senior transfer Eleanor Peters has only spent one season with Jensen and the Orange, but she shares his competitive fire and understands how important the tournament is to the program.

Peters was a major contributor during the season, compiling a 33-3 overall record (17-2 in singles action) after coming over from Maryland. Despite her success and the team’s record-breaking season, her focus is squarely on the road ahead.

‘We’re not done yet,’ Peters said. ‘We still have the Big East (tournament), that’s what I’m really concentrating on right now. That’s what this has all been building up to. We’ve been trying to grow so that we can do really well in the Big East, and we hope to win it and get to the NCAA’s.’

Though Peters’ teammates also want to keep the regular season in the rearview mirror for now, they don’t want to be so quick to write off what a monumental accomplishment it was.

Freshman CC Sardinha thought about turning professional right after high school, but decided to play for Jensen and eventually earned the No. 1 singles spot on the team. She went 30-8 overall (15-4 in singles play), and helped lead SU to the top tier of the Big East.

So for Sardinha, she was part of something special at Syracuse regardless of the outcome of the Big East tournament.

‘I think it definitely is (a success), and we proved that with our record at the moment,’ Sardinha said. ‘Our team in general has risen up, and we’ve been better than we were last season. Even if we don’t win, we’re still better than we were a couple months ago.’

jakrakow@syr.edu