In any sport, hard work in the offseason can produce an improvement in performance in competition. But rarely does such work and improvement result in a hot streak such as the one Elon University junior tennis player Cameron Silverman has been on in

the fall season.

While the NCAA’s official tennis season is in the spring, athletes compete on an individual level in amateur tournaments throughout the fall. Silverman’s performance in these tournaments has helped put himself and Elon on the map in the amateur tennis world.

Silverman, from Mount Kisco, N.Y., came to Elon because he had family in North Carolina and needed a “change of pace.” He met head coach Michael Leonard at a tournament during the recruiting process.

“He did a pretty good job recruiting me hard,” Silverman said.

In Silverman’s rookie year at Elon in the spring of 2011, he won the Southern Conference Freshman of the Year award. Despite initial success, Silverman said he has made significant strides and improvements since then.

“My conditioning was not very good,” he said. “I wasn’t very strong. That’s something that’s improved, and Coach Leonard has definitely improved my on-court tennis game.”

This past summer, Silverman decided to address some of the problems that have plagued him and his game. The most important was his serve, but there were other things as well.

“I (wanted) to improve consistency and my conditioning,” he said. “I want to get a little bit better to play at the top level.”

Silverman’s decision to be more disciplined in those respects pleased his coach.

“We talked a lot this summer about things he needed to do if he wants to take his game to the next level,” Leonard said. “He’s a talented kid, more mature and (has) become a bit more of a leader for our team.”

Leonard said he immediately knew that when Silverman began to devote himself to improvement and nutrition — “the little things” as Leonard called them — good things were bound to happen to the 5-foot-11 Silverman.

“He began working harder, and I thought, ‘This kid’s got a chance to be something special,’” Leonard said.

There was immediate change.

“He’s never had a great fall (season),” Leonard said. “In the three years he’s been here, he’s always gotten better as the year goes on. But now he’s training the right way, because sometimes he wouldn’t train in the right ways when he’s away from here. This fall, when he came back, he had a good win early on, he started getting confidence and believing he could beat these ranked players. He got a win in the first tournament and you could see his confidence start to take off.”

What ensued was an unprecedented run of success. Silverman and partner, sophomore Stefan Fortmann, earned a doubles championship at the Wake Forest Fall Invite Oct. 14. A week later, Silverman knocked off the top ranked amateur player in the country, Henrique Cunha of Duke University. The three-set match was a semifinal at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Carolina Regionals tournament.

Although Silverman was defeated in the singles final, he still earned a berth in the ITA Indoor Nationals in Flushing, N.Y., home of the U.S. Open. Silverman was the first Elon player to ever be selected for the tournament, and finished the competition 1-2, to complete a 12-5 overall fall season.

Silverman agreed with the words of his coach when describing his streak.

“All (the conditioning and practice) helped me out in the fall, and during the (tournaments) I rode confidence match by match,” Silverman said. “It started when I beat a kid from UNC-Wilmington who was ranked 55th in the country, and then I beat (Cunha) from Duke. I played a really good match against Cunha.”

While Silverman points to an increase in personal confidence as an output of his run, he is also mindful of the impact it has had on the men’s tennis team.

“It’s put Elon more on the map,” he said. “We’re a mid-major school not really known by that many top tennis universities. For me to go to a tournament where it was just the top schools like UCLA and Stanford, it’s great for Elon. A lot of people now understand where Elon is.”

Leonard said he is grateful for Silverman’s contributions to the program.

[box]Cameron Silverman Player Profile

Class: Junior

Hometown: Mount Kisco, N.Y.

High School: Fox Lane High School (Bedford, N.Y.)

Awards: 2011 SoCon Freshman of the Year, 2011 All-SoCon Second Team in doubles (with Eric Turner), 2012 All-SoCon First Team in singles, 2012 All-SoCon First Team in doubles (with Eric Turner)[/box]

“It’s given us light, to get to the finals of regionals and beat the No. 1 guy in the country,” Leonard said. “It gives us notoriety in the region, and then when he was able to get to the national indoors in New York, that put us more on the national stage.”

Silverman’s success in the fall, at a time when the focus is more on individual players, is exciting for the rest of the team and its hopes for the spring. Leonard said Silverman and Fortmann are formidable players on both the singles and doubles side, and Silverman’s goal for the spring is to deliver a Southern Conference championship and NCAA tournament berth.

He started preparing much earlier this time.