Depending on the time of year, people watching tennis on television see different types of courts: clay during the French Open, grass during Wimbledon, a blue court at the U.S. Open. Analysts broadcasting the matches usually spend some time talking about certain players having a winning record on clay, but struggling on concrete.

For the men’s tennis team, it has both an indoor and outdoor court. Indoor is used during the winter and when it rains. Outdoor is used once it gets warm. Just like playing on different types of courts professionally, playing indoor and outdoor has plenty of differences.

Junior Nick Cavaday from London, England, prefers playing indoors because that is what he is used to.

“When I’m back home, it’s always raining, so we are always playing indoors, so I’m used to it a little more,” Cavaday said. “When you go outside it’s a little different.”

For Cavaday, the only difference for him between playing outdoor and indoor is the style of play. Equipment is kept the same, despite some small adjustments.

“If you are playing someone who has a big serve, playing indoor is probably not best because he’s able to get a lot more pace on the ball. The ball flies in the air quicker. There are advantages in both; it just depends on the game,” Cavaday said. “We keep the same shoes. The only time I’ve used different shoes is when I’m back home, playing on grass courts.”

The surroundings make the biggest difference for senior Andre Iriarte.

“When you play outdoors, you’re playing with the environment — the wind, the sun. Heat is also a factor in the summer,” Iriarte said. “Indoor you can pretty much say that you play clean tennis. There are no factors around that are going to distract you like the wind or the sun or the weather. In here, you can get your groove on and hit around.”

The team will play outdoors once the weather is warmer. Coach Jon Choboy points out that conditioning becomes more of a factor during the warmer months. The team also works more on defense outdoors, whereas indoors it is mostly offense.

“Outside it’s a little bit more about constructing points and you have to play defensive,” Choboy said. “You have to be able to put lobs up a little bit high and dig your way out of trouble a little bit more, whereas you don’t do it that much inside. Once we head outside, we really work on playing our defensive part of our game a little bit more.”

There is also a difference between the indoor and outdoor crowds.

“Fans are a lot closer when we play indoors,” Cavaday said. “They’re right on top of the court whereas outdoors, they’re on top of the hill, they’re much more spread out. Also, we have six courts, so everything is going on at the same time. In general, everything is a little closer inside.”

Despite the differences between playing indoors and outdoors, some people associated with the team said how players play the game should not be affected by where they play.

“I don’t think there is a difference with this team because we work a lot on constructing points and playing good smart tennis anyway,” Choboy said. “Whether we’re playing inside or outside does not make a difference for us. A lot of teams that are very good indoor teams because they recruit really big servers … they step outside, those balls start coming back and they don’t know how to play. Our guys can go outside and play tennis without any problem.”

Iriarte echoed Choboy’s thoughts on that point.

“You shouldn’t play any different from indoor or outdoor,” Iriarte said. “Just play your game. You really don’t want to change a whole lot.”