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Salukis enjoy fall season, minimal injury

It was March 25 and SIU had just won its sixth straight match of the spring season.

The Salukis were 9-4 overall, 1-0 in Missouri Valley Conference play, and in the driver's seat. But without warning, the Salukis' destiny changed hands when the injury bug descended upon the team.

Julian Angel Botero was the first to be infected, suffering a knee injury the very next match against Indiana State.

By the time the injury bug ran its course, two more players - Peter Bong and Bojan Ilievski - had been contaminated.

Because the Salukis' roster was just six players deep, the trio continued to compete but wound up defaulting, or most often, losing.

"We were always playing down in the count," said senior Lukasz Soswa. "We were always down one match, two matches due to injuries."

What began as a promising season was ruined by injuries, causing SIU to lose six of its last seven matches and a 10-10 finish.

To minimize the chances of injury this year, the Salukis trained under strength coach Eric Klein, who has single-handedly enhanced nearly every SIU athletic program.

The Salukis' regimen consists of tennis-specific weightlifting and conditioning exercises and Klein takes no prisoners.

"We have trouble walking home," Soswa said. "He works everybody hard."

The work in the off-season translated into an injury-free fall season.

The Salukis competed in four fall tournaments - the Middle Tennessee Classic, the Kentucky Invitational, the Louisville Invitational and the ITA Regionals - and SIU head coach Missy Jeffrey was not disappointed.

"Everyone who competed this fall, I saw a lot of improvement - competitively and in mental toughness," Jeffrey said.

Botero did not compete in the fall season due to chicken pox.

The Salukis' roster consists of three seniors, two juniors and one freshman. Gone is Bong, now an assistant coach with the women's team, and in are newcomers Rodrigo Lama and Nick Bauer.

Lama, a sophomore from Santiago, Chile, finished the fall season 6-2, including a Flight A consolation title at the Louisville Invitational. Lama also advanced to the Flight B finals of the Middle Tennessee Classic, but the match was canceled due to weather conditions.

Lama posted wins against players from No. 16 Vanderbilt and No. 46 South Alabama.

Bauer, a freshman from Belleville, went 4-6 and advanced to the finals of the Flight C consolation at Louisville, but was defeated by Chicago State's Abram Mamahit. Ilievski went 1-3 and Alex Nomicos finished 2-8.

Soswa won seven of his 11 matches, including three wins at Louisville en route to the Flight C semi-finals where he lost to Nim Shetty of Southern Indiana. Soswa suffered an ankle injury and did not compete at the ITA Regionals.

"I started off a little shaky but definitely at the end of the season I started playing great," Soswa said.

Tomas Gonzalez played in 15 matches over the four-tournament season, finishing 9-6.

Gonzalez finished second in the Flight B competition at the Middle Tennessee Classic. At the ITA Regionals, Gonzalez defeated No. 3 Jose Rivera of Nebraska.

"He improved more than anyone else over the summer, and over the fall he just continued to improve," Jeffrey said.

As the Salukis fall season ends, the time for improvement begins as they have two months before their quest for an MVC championship begins in the January.