"The Duke match at Indoor [Nationals] was interesting," Arnold says. "I was interested in Duke when I was looking at colleges and the coach was recruiting me. Suddenly he got a couple of really good players and I lost all contact with him. It was really nice to beat up on them."

The victory against Duke and a defeat of highly-ranked Southern Alabama, both at the National Indoor Championships, propelled the Crimson to 13th place in the national rankings.

However, the success did not transfer to the outdoor courts. The team's recent trip to Texas for the Corpus Christi Tournament included defeats to Michigan, UNLV and Tulsa.

"Coming off the Texas trip with three losses to lower-ranked teams we learned some things," Arnold says. "We know that when we play well we can play with anyone at the top. However, when we don't play well, we can lose to anyone. We have a tough schedule ahead of us and I think it was important for us to forget any fantasies about how good we are."

Arnold points to the depth of the Crimson as a major strength. However, surprisingly, he feels that the balance that he as always looked for is the teams weakness.

"We don't spend as much time on the court as a lot of our opponents," Arnold explains. "Our players are not one-dimensional. A lot of those other guys plan on playing tennis for a living, and we are not so tennis oriented."

Balance may not always provide victories, but for Arnold, the quest has been worthwhile.