SEASON PREVIEW: M. Tennis aims for NCAAs

Laden with young talent, the Penn men's tennis team wants to win so badly this season. "I just want to win all my matches this year," senior Mark Schecter said. "If I can do that, and everybody else wins all their matches, then we'll have won all of our matches." The season opens this weekend as the Quakers host Boston University, Georgetown, George Washington and Rutgers at Levy Pavilion. There, Penn will begin its march to the NCAA Tournament, a goal that can only be reached with successful regional play. "This team has set a goal," freshman J.J. Cramer said. "We want to be ranked somewhere in the top four in our region. If we can do that, then we will make the NCAAs, and then we can go from there." This seems like a pretty lofty goal for a Quaker squad whose only performance thus far this season was a weak one last weekend at the Princeton Invitational. The Quakers had some trouble facing tougher opponents. Cramer lost to the nation's 11th-ranked player, and senior captain David Nathan went 1-1 against some stiff competition before retiring due to injury. The doubles duo of Nathan and Schecter bowed out in the first round. "That weekend was pretty much just a warm-up," sophomore Roy Sehgal said. "Those guys got some match play under their belts and were getting ready for the season." Competition starts in early February, and the Ivy League season does not get underway until after spring break. Add to that the fact the Quakers are a young team, and one comes up with what might be a troublesome year. "Personally, this will be a season to learn," Cramer said. "Coming into Penn, I knew I'd be able to compete at some level. However, I never thought it would be this tough." That is not to say Cramer does not think that he -- or even the team -- can win. "I'm not looking to win all the time, though that would be nice," Cramer said. "I've got to be realistic. I need to get some experience and mostly work on techniques in practice. If I can start to incorporate what I learn into match play, then I'll be in good shape. This is really just an exposure year for me." The same should apply to the team as a whole. Last season, the Quakers defeated ballyhooed GW, currently ranked fourth in the region, before Penn added spectacular freshmen like Cramer, Brad Goldberg and Ehren Stenzler. "We played well against GW last season," Penn coach Gene Miller said. "And now we're deeper and playing better tennis.?The team has set the goals for the season, and I think we can attain them. We have the talent to do it, it's just a matter of execution." Miller's players echo his confidence. "The talent is there for sure," Schecter said. "It's just a matter of getting onto the courts and winning. We need to concentrate on being consistent and avoiding peaks and valleys during the season." Doubters may question the team's ability to rebound from the tough losses suffered at Princeton. The players, however, realize what they must do to win. "I'm confident about our abilities," Cramer said. "We had an incredible practice after Princeton. We were really intense." Either way, the Quakers feel they are a young team on the verge. "We'll make the NCAAs this year or the next," Cramer said. "We have the talent, but we're very young, and that will impact our performance." Young talent sometimes blossoms, but it is not helpful if a team cannot mature. In this case, maturity will come only when players realize they must compete not for personal satisfaction, but for team gains. "I have few personal goals," Cramer said. "I just want the team to do well. My goals are significantly less important than the team concept. Team goals are really the key." "I just want to win every match I can for the team," Schecter said. "If we can all do that, we'll be very successful." Seems pretty straightforward.