Every spring, collegiate tennis teams from across the nation compete against each other for their respective conference championship and an automatic berth to the NCAA national championships.
Imagine a collegiate tennis tournament taking place in your hometown. Thanks to the Cayce Tennis and Fitness Center forming a partnership with the Big East Conference, Lexington County residents no longer have to imagine. 
For Matt Brothers, the Depaul men’s tennis coach, having the Big East tournament in Cayce, South Carolina was a great experience. Cayce was one of the locations the Big East tennis coaches had considered when they all voted to move the conference tournament to a neutral site.
Brothers has nothing but praise for the Cayce Tennis and Fitness. He called the staff “fantastic”, the tennis courts “great” and the tennis courts were basically theirs for the entire tournament. He hopes that they will continue to hold the Big East Tennis Championships in Cayce as the outdoor tennis courts will help the winning team prepare for the NCAA Tennis championships.
Plus, according to Brothers, having the Big East Tennis Championships in Cayce is a boost to the tennis community of Cayce and Columbia. There is a lot of high-quality tennis in the area and it would be of interest and a bit inspiring to the tennis community here.
The day before the men’s quarterfinals, Xavier head coach Doug Matthews was asked to compared how well his team is playing now compared to his expectation at the beginning of the season.
“It was a tough season for us,” he said. “We lost a close matches. I think we played well just haven’t pulled out a lot of the close one we hoping to at the beginning of the year. But once you get to tournament play we feel like it’s a new season and we feel like we’re playing well enough to win”. 
Despite Matthews’ brand new expectations, the 8th seeded Xavier’s men’s tennis team fell short against top-seed St. John’s with a 4-1 loss in the first match of the quarterfinals. 
Matthews was not the only one who had brand new expectations. This was Brothers when asked to compared how the Depaul Men’s Tennis team is playing now compared to the beginning of the season.
“I think we’re playing fine,” he said. “The guys have been improving. We’ve been focus on the process on the whole, not necessarily the outcome and just preparing for this weekend is been what its all been about.  We’ve lost our last 5 matches, but I don’t think any us are phased or bothered by that. I think our guys are peaking at the exact right time”  
Day 2 of the Big East Tennis Tournament was met with a rain delay in the afternoon. This caused both the No. 4 Seed Depaul and No. 5 Seed Creighton to have their matches suspended against each other.
On April 20, Depaul defeated 5th seed Creighton 4-1. This allowed Depaul a chance to compete in the semi-finals against St. John’s. 
Brothers’ goal was to make sure Depaul was prepared for the Big East Tennis Championship. In order to achieve this goal, he put together a schedule that had his team playing as many as 9 matches outside to get ready. 
This meant traveling and playing matches on the road. Considering DePaul in is Chicago, it’s just not realistic for them to outdoor matches. This was a battle considering that they were playing outside and had won just 3 out of 9 matches.  
Despite being the most prepared team on Day 3, there was another rain delay causing another suspension of the semi-final match between Depaul and St. John’s. On Day 4, St. John’s defeated DePaul 4-0 win in the semifinals. 
In the championship on Easter Sunday, St. John’s rallied from a 3-0 hole against 3rd seed Marquette to win the tournament for the 1st time since 2016. 
On Monday, it learned they would face to open the first round of the NCAA men’s tournament which starts May 16.