After losing 10 seniors to graduation coming into the 2014 season, the sting wasn't quite as great entering 2015 for the Emmaus boys tennis team, but it still took hits.

The big loss comes from the graduation of number two singles player Rowan Hobson, who won gold in the final LVC Tournament. Hobson also teamed with Matt FitzMaurice, who is now a junior, to form the top doubles tandem in the area.

Because of the weather, the team was once again limited in the number of practices that its been able to hold, leaving some questions to be answered in the early part of the season. In fact, coming into the season opener against Pocono Mountain East, coach Dmitri Diamandopoulos still wasn't settled on his singles lineup.

"Singles is still up in the air because of the limited practices," said Diamandopoulos prior to the season opener. "Matt [FitzMaurice] will be at No. 1 singles, with Sanket Narayana at No. 2 at this moment and number-three is still up in the air. There's a lot of competition for the spots."

Senior Eric Ma and juniors Narayana, Cam Widdoss and Stephen Naab figure prominently in the remaining position battles.

Against Pocono Mountain East, FitzMaurice and Narayana picked up wins and senior Kyle Jaeger helped his cause to be the No. 3 singles player with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Tristen Boheim. Naab teamed with Darsh Patel to pick up a win in No. 4 doubles, while Ma and junior Dan Traynor dropped a closely contested No. 2 doubles match to the Cardinals JP Balas and Dan Christianson.

Emmaus won the match 5-2 to open the season on the right foot.

While FitzMaurice is a definite at No. 1, his health has been the only question mark after he sat out the conference tournament because of a level two hamstring tear, preferring instead to try to heal for districts. FitzMaurice struggled through the district tournament, but finished as the District 11 runner-up. The recovery went deep into the offseason, which somewhat limited his time to work on his game.

"There were about six months of rehab," he said. "So that was my main goal and then after that, just physical fitness to prevent anything like that from happening again.

"During that six months, I was just itching to play and then after I was so ready that I just put the time in and I think I surpassed where I was last year, so I hope it will hold up."

FitzMaurice opened the season with an impressive 6-0, 6-0 win over Steven Price of Pocono Mountain East.

While the team has just three seniors, FitzMaurice is one of 11 juniors on the team, which also has a total of 12 sophomores and freshmen. The team is very young, but even without a lot of court time to gauge some of the young players, FitzMaurice believes there's reason to think that it might not take long for the team to become a force in the new Eastern Pennsylvania Conference.

"I'm feeling really confident," he said. "We've got a whole new group of guys; we had almost our whole lineup graduate last year and we've got 25 good-hearted guys who love the game and want to get better, so I think it's going to be a really interesting season. It's definitely a rebuilding year, but I think with this group, it will kind of jump start that rebuild."

Diamandopoulos is also hopeful that the young players are going to find spots in the lineup before too long and be able to contribute at some point in the season.

"The team has a lot of returners as well as some new kids that should make the lineup," he said. "It should be interesting, because we have a great mix of talent with some new players trying to earn a spot."

The new EPC also provides for different competitors on the schedule to challenge the top teams from the former LVC, like Emmaus and Parkland. The Hornets finished 9-2 in the LVC and 9-4 overall, while Parkland stretched its streak of conference victories to 124 straight matches.

"I think it will be great competition in the EPC," said Diamandopoulos, who enters his 22nd season as the boys tennis coach. "It will be great for the league."