M. Tennis blanks Swarthmore

Pittsburgh. Georgetown. Rutgers. La Salle. Navy. Swarthmore. St. Joe's. What do all these schools have in common besides two syllables? They have all been shutout victims to the Penn men's tennis team, now a strong 14-5. Yesterday's victim, Swarthmore, was blanked 7-0 by a streaking Quaker squad that has won its last four. Granted, the teams Penn (3-1 EITL) has blanked have not been of the highest caliber. The Garnet are a Division III school. However, the Quakers' consistency and efficiency in dominating weaker teams have been most impressive. "Everyone feeds off everyone else a little bit," junior Marc Schecter said. "When one guy plays well, it shifts over to the rest of the team. I think that's why we sweep so many people." The Quakers expected to beat Swarthmore (3-9), a Division III school with a poor record. Swarthmore lived up to its reputation yesterday. "Swarthmore is definitely on the whole a weaker team," senior captain David Nathan said. "Everyone just came out and did what they had to do to win the match." The Garnet never gave Penn too much reason for concern, although the Quakers' doubles play was a little shaky as usual. A reason the team cited for the erratic doubles play has been the unfamiliarity between Penn's doubles partners. The return of freshman J.J. Cramer from an ankle sprain and an injury to Nathan caused another mix-up in the doubles pairings. "Coach [Gene Miller] tried some new teams," sophomore Jeff Jackson said. "We won, but it was a little sloppy. New combinations take some time to get use to." Jackson completed the shutout for Penn in exciting fashion. After splitting the first two sets, the third set went to a tiebreaker until Jackson, in front of cheering players who had already finished their matches, edged his Garnet foe, 8-6, in the tiebreaker. "I could have easily lost that match," Jackson said. "The people on the sidelines were cheering really hard. It makes you reach down even more." Expecting to beat a team handily often leads to sloppy play. The Quakers know they can get away with it when they are playing a team like Swarthmore, but not when they face Ivy powers Harvard and Dartmouth Friday and Saturday, respectively. "I felt everyone on our team thought they weren't as good as we were," Schecter said. "Even though we didn't play our best, we didn't let them in. We had the confidence. "On Friday and Saturday, we have to play much better. We have to work on Wednesday and Thursday on getting there."