M. Tennis finishes 8th at ECACs

It was a weekend of mixed results for the Penn men's tennis team as it competed in the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championships at Princeton. Wins and losses, highs and lows, the Quakers experienced them all in the 16- team tournament, leading to an eighth place finish. The biggest high came on Friday, in the Quakers' first match against the Boston University. Things did not start off well in the match, though, as the Quakers dropped two of the three doubles matches. And the situation appeared to worsen after the Quakers dropped the first set in four of the six singles matches. But senior captain David Nathan, sophomore Andreas Olofsson and freshman Ehren Stenzler all managed to pull off comebacks and win tough three-set matches. Combined with the three set win of freshman Brad Goldberg and the straight set win of freshman J.J. Cramer, the Quakers won five of the six singles matches and took the match,5-2. Coach Gene Miller was pleased with what he saw. "We talked about roles and goals, and everybody knew going in what they had to do," Miller said. "So even when we were down, the guys just continued to fight. "It was really the finished product of what I've been looking for. Every guy was firing on all cylinders. The guys were yelling and pulling for each other. A couple of guys came down from Philadelphia to cheer them on. It was really a team effort. They played like true champions." The Quakers' reign as champions was short. On Saturday they ran into the highly ranked Harvard Crimson. The only bright spot for Penn was a doubles victory for the No. 1 duo of Nathan and junior Marc Schecter. The pair defeated the Harvard team of Todd Meringoff and Adam Meister, 8-4. But the Quakers lost all six singles matches and the other two doubles contests to lose, 7-0. It was not the Quakers' best performance, according to Miller. "Definitely there was no lack of want there. The heart was there the entire time," Miller said. "But I think they were tired emotionally from coming back the day before to beat BU. And there was a little bit of a lack of concentration." There were no such problems on Sunday, as the Quakers came out strong against Yale. The doubles teams of Cramer and Goldberg as well as Olofsson and freshman Jon Aspatore won their matches to give Penn an early 1-0 lead. Nathan and Schecter again shone for the Quakers, as both won their singles matches. But the Elis took the other four singles matches to take the match by the slimmest of margins, 4-3. "I was disappointed that we didn't win that one," Miller said. "We had the momentum going after we won the doubles. To start ahead 1-0 against a team like that was great." But the elements became a factor in the match, and, according to Miller, the team's inexperience in dealing with them contributed to the loss. "It started to get pretty windy, and I think guys got a little impatient with trying to put the ball away too much," Miller said. "They went for too much on their shots in the wind." "It was very frustrating for a bunch of players, particularly myself," said Cramer of the wind. "The inexperience played a factor. We didn't take the time to make adjustments and work the points, and it cost us a bit." The youth of the Quakers certainly has some negatives, such as the inexperience with the wind, but it also has quite a few positives for the team. And when the right combination of youth and experience is found, the results are quite explosive. "I think some of the new freshmen that have come in have added some excitement," Miller said. "And then the old guard that's been around understands what we're really looking for. They're really meshing well, they really like each other, and the chemistry is good. When you put all that together, you've got some dynamite." Miller found some other things to be happy about after the Quakers' performance over the weekend. One was the play of captain Nathan, who won two of his singles matches at the No. 1 spot. "He legitimately held his head high as a No. 1 player," Miller said. "He's playing like a No. 1 player needs to play." Miller also found a reason to be pleased in the never-say-die attitude of the Quakers, which he feels will eventually pay dividends. "There wasn't one other team in that tournament that [after having already won or lost the match] still cared about each individual match," Miller said. "No matter what the conditions were, we still tried to win right down to the last match. That's going to win us some matches this year. I've been looking for that for a long time." The results of the tournament were average. But there is a sense that the rest of the year is promising for this young team. "We performed well," Cramer said. "You can see the improvement. We lost a tough match to Yale, and we're disappointed at the Harvard match. But we know we're capable of competing with them." "It's about what I thought we would do. I wanted to beat Yale. I felt we really needed to beat them. But we'll get them in the spring," Miller said. "I think we're going to be a lot better in the spring. We're going to be a force to be reckoned with."