M. Tennis hosts weekend Classic

When reading the fall schedule for the Penn men's tennis team, one begins to sense a pattern – at Swarthmore, at Jackson, Miss., at Notre Dame, at Princeton, and so on. Six of the seven events on the fall schedule have the Quakers taking their rackets on the road. The one exception to the rule occurs today, tomorrow and Sunday, when the Quakers host the Penn Conference Classic at Levy Pavilion. The rare home event could prove to the Quakers' advantage, according to junior Marc Schecter. "It's more comfortable for everybody," Schecter said. "We know the courts since we practice [at Levy Pavilion] two or three times a week." Nine Quakers will be hoping to take advantage of their home courts in the individual event. Senior captain David Nathan, Schecter, sophomores Roy Sehgal and Andreas Olofsson and freshmen Nikhilesh Bhattacharya, J.J. Cramer and Brad Goldberg will represent Penn in the singles draw, while the teams of Nathan and Schecter, Cramer and Goldberg, Olofsson and freshman Jon Aspatore and Sehgal and sophomore David Marek will compete in the doubles event. All of them will have their hands full, as the tournament is filled with quality teams. But the Quakers think they can hold their own. "Virtually every team here is a top-notch team," said Sehgal, listing Clemson, Harvard, Southern Alabama and West Virginia as examples. "But we have talent. We can show them that we can play. We just can't think scared." Playing matches against such high-quality opponents is always beneficial. The experience allows the team to see where it stacks up in relation to other schools. "It's a tough tournament," Schecter said. "They're all good teams. It'll let everybody see how we're doing." "It will definitely show us where we stand," said Sehgal. "This shows us how much we have improved and how much work we have to do." One possible concern that the Quakers might have had was their recent Fall Break. Any inactivity could have taken the edge off their games just before the Conference Classic. But the team feels there won't be any problem. "I think enough people played [over the break], and the last two days we practiced really hard," Sehgal said. "It won't affect us too much." "People coming off Fall Break and maybe exams need to bust their butts on the courts," Schecter said. "They really can't worry about how they're going to do, because if they bust their butts they'll do fine." And besides, it will be the only time the Quakers get to "bust their butts" on their home courts this fall season.