Soft Touch Makes Cohen Hard to Beat on the Court

Tony Cohen thinks he might pursue an advertising career once his tennis career at Cal Lutheran ends.

To that end, along with completing the class work required of a marketing major, Cohen employs subliminal techniques of the soft sell in his tennis game.

“A lot of people have trouble playing me because of my style,� Cohen says. “I don’t hit the ball as hard as most players at the college level.

“It gets into an opponent’s head. Once he thinks, ‘I can’t believe this guy is beating me,’ that’s when I know I’m going to be OK.�

Lately, Cohen has been a pretty good advertisement for the Cal Lutheran tennis program, which is enjoying another successful campaign.

Last week, at Christ College in Irvine, Cal Lutheran won its third consecutive NAIA District 3 tournament team championship. Cohen defeated teammate Matt Simpson to win the singles championship and also teamed with Simpson to win the doubles title.

On Monday, Cohen and the Kingsmen will begin play in the NAIA championships at Rockhill Country Club in Kansas City, Mo., where they will try to improve on last season’s 17th-place finish.

Cal Lutheran, which finished the regular season 14-13, is ranked 20th among the 35 teams that are expected to take part. Defending-national champion Lander College of Greenwood, S.C., Texas College of Tyler and the University of West Florida are among the favorites.

“All year we’ve been beleaguered by injury after injury after injury,� said John Siemens, who is in his ninth year as coach of the Kingsmen. “How we do back there depends on our draw and how well bodies hold up.�

Cohen, in fact, is the only Cal Lutheran player who is not nursing an injury.

Paavo Salmi, the team’s No. 1 player for most of the season, has two bad ankles, Simpson has been bothered by elbow and thigh problems, Mike Gennette has a strained Achilles’ tendon, Brian Turner’s wrist, ankles and shoulder are tender and George Kovacs has a knee injury.

Cal Lutheran’s hopes, therefore, would appear to be riding on Cohen, who was 26-8 during the regular season and is the only ranked player (64th) on the team.

“Tony doesn’t give away points. He’s a counterpuncher more than anything else,� Siemens said. “He cuts you and slices you and you bleed to death, and you don’t even know you’re bleeding because he does it so softly.�

Cohen, 21, lost only five matches in three years at El Camino Real High before enrolling at Cal State Northridge upon graduation in 1986.

But he never got the chance to compete at Northridge. He redshirted his freshman year, after which the school announced that it was dropping its men’s tennis program.

“A couple friends said they were thinking of transferring to a school called Cal Lutheran,� recalled Cohen, who grew up in Woodland Hills. “I had never even heard of Cal Lutheran.�

Cohen transferred to Pierce College for the 1988 spring semester and went undefeated in the regular season before losing in the Western State Conference tournament quarterfinals.

He transferred to Cal Lutheran in February, and, despite missing the first three weeks of the tennis season because of a transcript delay, has become the team’s top contender for individual national honors.

Chris Groff had the best finish ever by a Cal Lutheran men’s tennis player when he reached the quarterfinals of the national championships in 1987.