M. Tennis ready for Lions

Columbia was never the team to beat in the EITA. It was always Harvard and then Princeton, and then maybe Yale or Dartmouth, but never the Lions. They were seen as average, and last year they lived to up that billing splitting their league games. However, in what can only be termed as an incredible and shocking season, Columbia -- with basically the same players -- has gone undefeated in the EITA. The Lions have already beaten Dartmouth, Yale, Princeton and even national-powerhouse Harvard. The only thing that can stop Columbia from perfection now are the struggling Quakers, currently on a four-game slide. Penn (14-9, 3-5 EITA) feels it has a good shot noon tomorrow at Lott Courts against the streaking Lions, who come into the match on a 10-game roll. The Quakers believe Columbia's 11-2, 8-0 record is far superior to its personnel. "Honestly we thought we would be close to them," Penn coach Gene Miller said. "It's more of a fact that they're playing with confidence rather than talent." "It would be more intimidating if it were someone like Princeton or Harvard," sophomore Andreas Olofsson said. "Part of the reason they are undefeated is because they play on clay at home. I think we feel as confident against them as we do against all the Ivy teams." Looking closer at the individual matches that make up Columbia's undefeated march, it does appear the Lions have gotten all the breaks this year. They beat perhaps the four toughest teams in the EITA -- Harvard, Princeton, Dartmouth and Yale -- by a 4-3 margin. The Crimson and Tigers, generally considered the two most talented teams in the league, both had to travel to the Lions' infamous clay courts. "It should be to our advantage to play on our surface," sophomore Jeff Jackson said. "The [Columbia] players are good clay court players, and they're able to upset other teams. They're the only team that plays on clay in the Ivies, so it's a big advantage when they play there." "If that same Columbia team played at Harvard or Princeton, Columbia loses 5-2 -- which is about what we did," Miller said. Maybe, but Columbia did win those matches where it had to and when it had to. The Lions are coming off a a 7-0 massacre of Brown on the road, a team the Quakers lost to 5-2. "The question is which Penn team will come out today," Miller said. Columbia also has an incentive to win this match aside from wanting to finish the EITA season perfectly. A win will assure it sole possession of the EITA championship, while a loss could force them to share the title. The Quakers are not in quite that "difficult" situation, but still feel winning their final game is important. "This is our last match and we really want to win," Jackson said. "Each guy needs to win his own match. If we win, we beat the best team in the Ivies, and that will prove we can play with anybody. If we lose the match, that will mean we would have lost five straight matches to end the season. We want to win really badly."