After grabbing the 1949 national collegiate team championship, Coach George Kraft's tennis squad faced the present season minus its two big guns, Art Larsen and Sam Match. Runner up in singles competition, Match joined forces with Larsen to also annex a second spot in the doubles.
However, the new horizon was not an dark as it seemed to be, for a trio of new suns loomed up to join the ranks of a tremendous quartet of veterans. Onto the scene came Wally Vickery, Stan Smith, and Jack Kramer to combine with Harry Roche, Conway Catton, Frank Sample, and Bill Green. The Jack Kramer is obviously not the same one who makes a habit of pounding Pancho. Conway Catton has downed one of the best netmen on the Pacific Coast, Herbie Flam of UCLA. Catton and Match were runners up in last year's doubles in the California intercollegiate team championships at Ojai.
During the regular season, 12 opponents fell before the strung gut weapons of the Kraftmen. The Dons were the only unbeaten college aggregation in California, marking the first time in Hilltopper history that a USFÂ tennis team swept through a schedule without a blemish. Twelve matches were slated for this campaign, with the club having a good chance to duplicate the efforts of last year's stalwarts. An imposing array of frosh talent is on hand headed by Jerry DeWitts, Herman Molina, and Seth Peterson.
DeWitts is a member of the Junior Davis Cup Team, and the third ranking junior in the U.S. Molina was a formerly junior champ of the Argentine, and holds down an 8th rating in Argentine men's singles. Peterson is a San Francisco boy with an abundance of talent. Thanks to the efforts of Fr. Duffy, S.J., Coach George Kraft, and the directors of the California Tennis Club, the Don racketeers now boast of a true home court, the aforementioned Club (TheDon).
