By Blake Dowson

At the surface, it may not look like the Hawkeye men’s tennis team performed at its best this fall.

After all, there was only one Hawkeye in the round of 16 at the Big Ten Championships a few weeks ago, and he bowed out in that round. Goals going into the tournament had four Hawkeyes in the quarterfinals.

Dig a little deeper, though, and it is clear that the squad is on the right path to taking another step forward in the Big Ten.

Maybe there was only one player, sophomore Lefteris Theodorou, in the round of 16 at Big Tens. But the Hawkeyes placed five athletes in the round of 32, as many as any other team in the conference.

So sure it’s fair to say the Hawkeyes don’t enter the winter months having found a stud at the top of the lineup. But they weren’t expecting to do that.

Iowa is going to win a lot of matches this spring with the depth of their singles lineup. The Hawks don’t give up a ton of talent from the No. 1 spot to the No. 6 spot. And you get the exact same number of points for winning a match in the No. 6 spot as you do at the top of the lineup. There aren’t many teams in the Big Ten that can stack up with the balance of the Hawkeyes.

Not to mention that Iowa competed at Big Tens without Josh Silverstein, who played himself into the semifinals of the tournament last fall as a freshman.

The Hawkeyes also found a breakout player in the doubles bracket in junior Nils Hallestrand. The 6-5 Swedish player has been in and out of the lineup in his career as a Hawkeye, mostly as a stopgap for an injured teammate.

That won’t be the case this spring. Hallestrand was a force at the net during doubles play at Big Tens, and he and partner Jonas Larsen demonstrated chemistry that would suggest they had been playing together for years.

Larsen showed great agility at the backline and played with a great amount of topspin, making it possible for Hallestrand to lurk around the net and put away any shot that came across the middle of the court. Larsen and Hallestrand will be a tough out for any duo they play this spring.

Looking beyond the Big Ten Championships, the Hawkeyes had good luck with Mississippi State transfer Robin Haden, who was ousted in the second round of Big Tens along with three other Hawkeyes after a three-set loss.

But it’s what happened before the Big Ten Championships that should excite people for what Haden brings to the table, considering he accomplished things we haven’t seen done in five years.

Haden posted three victories at the All-Americans in Tulsa earlier this fall and advanced to the qualifying round of the tournament, the first Hawkeye to do so since 2011.

A week later at the regional, Haden recorded two first dayvictories to advance to the round of 32, including a victory over Toby Boyer of Nebraska, runner-up at the Big Ten Championships.

No, the Hawkeyes didn’t meet expectations at the Big Ten Championships. But should that curb expectations for the spring? Of course not.

This team will wear people down in the dual season. And the depth that they possess could be highlighted by a nice one-two punch at the top of the lineup with Theodorou and Haden, not to mention Dom Patrick.

So please take the Big Ten Championships for what they’re worth, a tournament at the end of a long fall season that frankly doesn’t mean a whole lot.

This Hawkeye tennis team is on the right track, heading into the spring season with expectations to make the NCAA Tournament, something they haven’t done in a long time.

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