Luke Jensen’s tenure leading the Syracuse tennis program has been defined by his overwhelming confidence, which consistently straddles the line dividing boldness and outlandishness. 

 

But turn the conversation to his team’s schedule, and a hint of frustration creeps onto his face. His trademark cartoonish grin shrinks. The effervescent quality that exemplifies Jensen’s bubbly personality begins to dim.

 

Because even now, fresh off the greatest regular season in team history, Jensen recognizes that the Orange’s 19-2 record doesn’t necessarily prove anything yet. Not on the national scale. Not on the level he has vowed to reach. 

 

Though Syracuse has won 13 straight matches and is undefeated in Big East play, its apparent dominance may be misleading. It is unranked and has not played the best three teams in the conference: Notre Dame, South Florida and DePaul, all of whom have spent all or most of the season in the national polls. SU has only faced one team currently in the Top 25.

 

Syracuse is trapped in a sort of tennis purgatory — too good for a large portion of the tennis world but still unproven against the upper echelon — and is searching for a way to escape it. Next week’s Big East tournament is Jensen’s best opportunity yet to demonstrate that all his talk is leading to results. 

 

No matter how well SU has played thus far, it is impossible to gauge the extent of the team’s improvement without seeing how it handles the conference’s elite.

 

‘It’s tough to beat them when they won’t play us,’ Jensen said last week, brash and self-assured, but with a wisp of glumness.

 

Big East women’s tennis does not mandate that all conference teams play each other. Individual coaches make their own schedules. Jensen has called Notre Dame and DePaul in an attempt to schedule matches in the past two years to no avail. His requests have been denied. 

 

And that won’t change anytime soon. Notre Dame coach Jay Louderback and DePaul coach Mark Ardizzone both said in recent interviews that they have completed most of their schedule through 2012, and they have no intention of adding Syracuse.

 

In other sports — men’s basketball, for instance — this would perhaps suggest that top teams are afraid of playing SU. A ranked team losing to a talented but unproven team like SU would seriously damage postseason aspirations, so top programs avoid it.

 

Louderback laughed off that notion. In women’s tennis, rankings mean everything. To reach the NCAA tournament, it’s sometimes not as much how much you win but who you play. Louderback pointed out that Syracuse lost to No. 3 Michigan, 7-0, earlier this year. No. 6 Notre Dame beat the Wolverines. 

 

That’s why he has turned down Jensen’s requests.

 

‘We have to look out for ourselves and try to play as many of the teams in the Top 25 in the country as possible,’ Louderback said. ‘We would love to play Syracuse and more Big East teams, but until they are in the rankings, it just doesn’t make sense for us to play them all.’

 

Ardizzone at DePaul learned this reality firsthand just last year. His Blue Demons went 17-4, including 14 shutouts. They were the Big East tournament runner-up, losing to Notre Dame in the championship. It wasn’t enough to qualify for the NCAA tournament. Ardizzone said they were the last team out.

 

So DePaul loaded its schedule this year with schools that graced the rankings. No room for Syracuse. 

 

‘I feel for Luke because I used to beat my head against the wall trying to make mandatory scheduling,’ Ardizzone said. ‘He wants a chance to show how good they really are. Now my team is high in the rankings, and I see it from the other perspective. We got left out last year, and it was hard to take. We need to play top competition.’

 

Ardizzone added that financial considerations have stopped DePaul from playing Syracuse. The Blue Demons last came here in 2008 and spent $7,000 — far more than Ardizzone is willing to spend from a tight travel budget, especially to play an unaccomplished opponent.

 

Jensen deserves nothing but praise for what he has done in his three years at Syracuse. He has taken a nondescript tennis program and begun the process of building a winner. Sophomore Emily Harman said SU had been ‘mocked’ in the past but now is respected. Junior Simone Kalhorn said that the rest of the Big East ‘is scared of us now.’

 

Jensen has even started to make good on his promise to recruit professional prospects. Freshman CC Sardinha, the team’s best player, was on the pro circuit and planned to skip college altogether before Jensen began recruiting her. ‘This is the best training you can possibly have in the country to become a professional,’ she said last week.

 

And perhaps most importantly, give Jensen credit for trying to play the best Big East opponents. It would be easy for him to talk like he does but shy away from Notre Dame. 

 

Jensen is convinced his team is ready to compete with the cream of the Big East crop right now. That given the chance, Syracuse would prove it belongs in the national rankings. He has never cared that Notre Dame is ranked No. 6 and Syracuse is nowhere to be found on any poll.

 

‘The difference is they haven’t played us yet,’ Jensen said. ‘It’s going to take a massive effort from any team to beat us because they don’t play like we do.’

 

The chance to back up his words is coming. Jensen’s team will play the teams he so badly wants to play. This may be the group that justifies his constant hype. 

 

Jensen says he’s coming for the top dogs, and he’ll keep calling until they accept. Next week, they won’t have a choice.