Alumni Spotlight | Rick Servoss | 2002-06 - Marquette University Athletics

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Marquette men's tennis players are scattered across the world and our new Alumni Spotlight feature will allow us to provide personal and professional updates on the student-athletes who represented the University on the court and continue to be ambassadors today.

Rick Servoss | 2002-06

Current Location: Washington, DC since 2008

Family: I met my wife Otilia in 2009. She's a patent attorney who enjoys playing tennis. We get out to the court to hit at least once a week.

Profession: I've been working at Loring Consulting Engineers in Washington DC since 2008. I currently lead the mechanical group in Loring's DC office, where we design mechanical systems for projects in sectors such as higher-ed, government, healthcare, historic, hospitality, etc…

Marquette Memories:

I have very fond memories of, and continue to have great experiences, with the Marquette Athletics family. All the coaches, staff, administrators and student-athletes all knew each other and supported each other. We frequently had the Athletic Director in the stands cheering us on alongside players from other teams. In my years at Marquette, I never felt like I had to tackle anything on my own. The support structure and the amount of camaraderie and personal attention from the entire athletic department was truly unique.
As other teammates have shared, the workouts under Coach Rodecap were something else. When we reminisce about them, we sometimes leave out how nobody would be more enthused about us crushing them than the coaches. Whether it was Coach Holsopple congratulating you for doing a great wall-sit as you are no longer able to walk, or Coach Rodecap trying to chest bump you as you're making a beeline to a trash can to hug, or Coach Rudy chasing after you at valley fields making sure you make your split time, you could always count on having their support if you put forth the effort.
So many of the memories being shared are geared towards athletics, but we were all student-athletes, focusing both on sports and academics. When I think about my time at Marquette, athletics was just part of the story. I remember late nights in the Olin Engineering computer lab with a two-liter of Mountain Dew and a meatball sub for the ultimate dinner/homework combo. This probably didn't help my fitness, but if you're waking up at 5 AM and burning a thousand calories by 7 AM, a meatball sub (or two) wasn't going to hurt. There were a few student-athlete engineers in my class, including a couple of teammates, which made the school-sports balance a lot easier and more enjoyable. Some of our biggest supporters that would come to every tennis match were also engineers, so the same people who would be at Olin at 11 PM studying with us would be in the stands cheering us on the next day.

Servoss on Coach Rodecap: "His passion for Marquette tennis is second only to his passion to making his team eat at Macaroni Grill on every single road trip."

Rodecap on Servoss: "When I first arrived at Marquette, Ricky was one of the guys that I instantly felt was going to buy into the process of how we were going to train, and really wanted to prove himself. He was a selfless teammate and worked tirelessly to make those around him better. Ricky is one of those guys that was really proud of playing for Marquette and valued the relationships that he developed here. Ricky and his wife, Otilia, have been very supportive of our program throughout the years, and it didn't shock me that he made a Marquette fan out of her."

Marquette University Athletics

Alumni Spotlight | Rick Servoss | 2002-06

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