POUGHKEEPSIE, New York – Stating the obvious, the goal for every Marist student-athlete at the beginning of a season is to win a MAAC Championship.
An athlete may not fully comprehend that dream during the athlete's freshman year or first season at Marist. Over time, that desire grows as each athlete fully immerses themselves further into competition.
However, that desire achieves a new level during an athlete's senior year. It is one last opportunity to hoist a MAAC trophy with one's best friends and teammates; to show the results of three-plus seasons of intense preparation in practices and competitions; to deliver on the trust that coaches place on the veterans to lead the team.
Lars Schouten and
Christopher Gladden were ready for 2019-20 for their senior moment. It was a moment that ended sooner than they wanted.
Marist Men's Tennis was playing the best tennis it has played in close to three seasons prior to its season prematurely ending due to the coronavirus outbreak. The Red Foxes had won five consecutive matches, most recently defeating UConn in Marist's home opener on March 8. The MAAC's preseason fourth-ranked team totaled a 6-1 record in dual matches, and had individual winners in the Quinnipiac Invitational and Fordham-Four-In-The-Fall.
Though the program has enjoyed its success, there is still a lack of closure that emanates from the abrupt end to the year, especially with what it meant for the team's captains.
"The saddest part of the sudden end to the season was that our two co-captains, Lars and Chris, would not get an opportunity to battle for the MAAC crown, a goal of theirs for the past two years," said Director of Tennis
Gary Sussman.
Many of Marist's triumphs this year happened due to powerful performances from
Lars Schouten. This year, the senior captain paced the team with 25 wins, 15 of which came in singles play, and 10 in doubles. He operated exclusively in the top flight in dual matches, recording five wins in singles. He paired with
Nestor Giribet Lopez to go 4-1 in No. 2 doubles as well.
His 2019-20 campaign featured multiple exceptional feats. Consider the fall slate, where he won the Quinnipiac Invitational "A" final for the second-consecutive season, or his first-place finish in the "A" bracket at the Fordham Four-In-The-Fall. There is also his marathon match against Colgate's Scott Bickel, where the Buren, Netherlands native prevailed in a three-hour battle 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 to give Marist the 4-3 victory, leading to MAAC Player of the Week honors.
"Lars was the leader of the pack, our number one singles player who had the ultimate respect of his teammates as well as his opponents, both in the MAAC and out of conference," commended Sussman. "He was on his way to an outstanding senior season, defending his title to win the Quinnipiac Invite, and then capturing the Fordham Invite by beating Army in the final. Lars then recorded dual match wins against Rider, Colgate, Lafayette, LaSalle and UConn, and fell just short of 100 career wins at Marist. Lars' speed, skill and stamina will be forever stamped into the lexicon of Red Fox tennis."
Schouten's senior feats are just a sliver of his production as a Red Fox, however. He has won four MAAC Player of the Week awards in the last two seasons, the most of any MAAC student-athlete. Throughout his four-year career, the 2019 All-MAAC Second Team Doubles recipient tallied 98 total wins in his career, the third-most by a Red Fox since the start of the 2013-14 season.
Like Schouten, Gladden also filled up the stat sheet during his time in Poughkeepsie. In his first three seasons, he never finished below .500 in either singles or doubles. His best year came in 2018-19, when he went 23-9 in singles play, going 15-5 from the second and third positions and 4-1 in conference play, garnering All-MAAC Second Team honors. In doubles, he added 14 victories, 10 of which came from the second flight, and lost just once against conference foes.
Overall, the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania product registered 97 career victories, one behind his fellow captain. Since 2013-14, there have only been five Red Foxes to record 20 or more singles wins in one year. Gladden and Schouten are two of them, as well as teammate
John Oxner a season ago, Dylan Fletcher in 2015-16, and Joseph Dube in 2014-15. Gladden's career wins are only behind Fletcher, Rudolf Kurz, and Schouten.
Heading into 2019-20 with 93 wins already, Gladden was primed for another big season. However, he spent the fall semester in a different environment than years past: the senior studied abroad in Spain in those months, working towards his degree in Business as he pursues law school. Though he stayed in shape overseas, Gladden capitalized on the chance to participate in Marist College's renowned study abroad experience.
With that opportunity came a challenge for the No. 2 singles player: without a fall season to prepare for the spring, Gladden had to adjust to the competition when matches began in late January. In the spring, He picked up four total wins in doubles and singles, the former of which he played in the top flight.
"Chris missed valuable playing time in the fall, but he worked extremely hard to regain the form he demonstrated during his junior year," said Sussman. "Through perseverance and dedication, he was finally hitting his stride, capped off by a marathon two-and-a-half hour win against UConn in what turned out to be our final match of the season. Chris, after being down a set, came back to tie the match by capturing the second set, and then prevailed 15-13 in the match tiebreak, which will be a fond lasting memory of his final collegiate match."
With the combined 195 victories, it could be said that
Lars Schouten and
Christopher Gladden are one of the top duos in Marist Tennis history in recent memory, perhaps all-time. The two showed through their leadership and skill this year that their curtain call of senior year was for one goal only: to win Marist's first MAAC Championship since 2015.
Schouten and Gladden lived the heartbreak of falling short of that goal three times. Senior year was going to be different. The chance will not come this season, or perhaps ever. That elevated desire to cap a career with a championship is stuck in suspended animation for two of the top Red Foxes in this decade.
Each week, the Marist Athletics Department will spotlight the Class of 2020 from the spring sports whose seasons ended prematurely due to the COVID-19 outbreak. To learn more about these seniors, check back on GoRedFoxes.com, and follow Marist Athletics on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Senior Spotlights: Women's Tennis (March 23) | Women's Lacrosse | Baseball | Water Polo | Softball | Women's Track and Field | Men's Rowing | Women's Rowing | Men's Lacrosse | Men's Track and Field
