From gridiron to groundstrokes, Kyle Murray uses athleticism to tackle 2 sports at Saint Vincent
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When asked about Kyle Murray’s skills as a tennis player, Saint Vincent coach Brian Niemiec readily admits the rising junior isn’t the most polished. Murray admits it, too.
And yet, what Murray might lack in technical proficiency, he makes up for with athleticism and tenacity.
Niemiec recalled a match last season when an opposing coach questioned Murray’s abilities. Murray responded by beating his opponent in straight sets that weren’t close.
“He’s just uber-athletic,” said Niemiec, the men’s tennis coach at SVC since 2017. “If you look at how he plays, there’s nothing that stands out like, wow, he has the most incredible serve or he has great volleys or anything like that. He’s just so athletic and gets everything back, and it just flusters opponents so much.”
If that bulldog mentality seems like it might be more fitting for the violence of a football field than the gentile confines of a tennis court, there’s a good reason for that. Murray is a football player who also happens to play tennis.
Murray, listed at 5-foot-10, 175 pounds, was a second-team All-Presidents’ Athletic Conference selection as a punter last season — he averaged 38.2 yards per kick — and made his mark on defense, too. With injuries eating into coach Aaron Smetanka’s secondary, Murray was pressed into service and responded with 47 tackles, a fumble recovery and an interception.
He also has used his athleticism when punting. He had a 14-yard run on a fake punt against Case Western Reserve last season and, as a freshmen, threw a 35-yard pass on a fake punt.
“We can rugby-kick with him. Whatever we do, he can make some plays back there,” said Smetanka, entering his sixth year as the Bearcats football coach. “He’s not just a stand-still punter. It gives the opposite side of the ball some deception. You don’t know at any point and time if he’s going to take the ball and just run with it or actually kick it.”
Murray, an Altoona grad, has had quite the journey not just as a two-sport athlete at Saint Vincent but to wind up at the Unity school in the first place.
Murray said he took a year off after high school with the intention of trying to join the U.S. Air Force. But as he was waiting for all the proper medical clearances to go through, he realized it was taking longer than he expected, and the new academic year was closing in.
He had to make a decision.
“I couldn’t take another year off school,” he said, “because I knew I’d never go back.”
Instead, he enrolled in the nursing program at Saint Vincent, which, at the time, was facilitated through a cooperative arrangement with Carlow. Meanwhile, his clearances to join the Air Force finally went through, but with Saint Vincent then deciding to develop its own nursing program, Murray said there was a question of how many of his credits would transfer if he left for the Air Force.
So he remained at Saint Vincent, where he is a 4.0 student.
“Maybe in the future (the Air Force) is a career path I might look into,” he said.
Sports-wise, Murray came to Saint Vincent for football, with no intention of playing tennis. Tennis, he said, was something he just “messed around with” in high school, playing his freshman and senior years, running track in between.
But once he got to campus, Niemiec approached him about the possibility of playing tennis as well as football. Murray said he was hesitant at first but decided to give it a shot.
Last season, he went 3-0 in singles — playing one match each at third, fourth and fifth positions — and 8-4 in doubles (7-4 at No. 3 doubles). The Bearcats went 5-3 in the PAC and 15-7 overall.
“In high school, I really wouldn’t consider myself as a tennis player,” he said. “I was just more of an athlete, and that kind of made its way to college. I relied on tracking everything down, using just my talents that I had.
“Then I thought maybe I should start taking this more seriously. … I’m still not anywhere close to being good, but I’ve definitely improved my game over the last two seasons.”
Niemiec said Murray sometimes will seek him out after football practice for extra work on volleys, and Murray’s serve has improved immensely.
“We were at practice one day, and I told him, ‘Kyle, it looks like it hurts the way you serve,’ ” Niemiec said. “I said, ‘How do you grip your racket?’ and he showed me. We moved (his hand) over one bevel on his grip, and the first three serves, he hit aces right up the ‘T.’ It improved monumentally after that.”
If Murray was somewhat of an accidental tennis player in college, the same might be said of his punting. He said he was buried on the DB depth chart and not seeing much action during his freshman camp when Smetanka announced the team was going to hold tryouts for a punter.
“I was like, you know what, why not?” Murray said. “I never really punted in high school. If we needed someone to go out and punt, I’d go out a few times.”
He wound up as the Bearcats’ regular punter and carried it over into his all-conference effort in 2023. The season was made sweeter by his long-awaited opportunity to get more snaps on defense.
“It felt good to be back,” he said. “For those couple of years I was away from being involved in any live contact, it was awesome to be able to get back into it.”
Smetanka said Murray’s experience last season will help him compete for more playing time on defense this fall. He noted Murray’s lateral movement as well as hand-eye coordination as qualities that enable him to play defensive back. The same skills that enable him to play tennis.
Murray said he is looking forward to the 2024 season. The Bearcats struggled to a 3-7 mark last fall, but Murray said he is starting to see a culture shift on the team and believes SVC is ready to shock some PAC opponents.
As for what his role will be in that, Murray said he is open to anything Smetanka and his staff ask.
Maybe offense, too? Murray admitted he has inquired about the possibility.
“I got shot down a little bit,” he said with a laugh. “But it wasn’t a definite ‘no.’ ”