M. Tennis holds off Princeton

This weekend had the potential to make or break the season for the Penn men's tennis team. The Quakers had to put together back to back wins against Navy and Princeton to keep alive any hope of qualifying for the NCAA tournament. Rising to the occasion, the Red and Blue blasted past both opponents to improve their season record to 11-3. Friday, Penn traveled to Navy to find a weakened opponent, as the Midshipmen were playing without their top two players. With a stroke of luck, the Quakers also managed to escape the notorious Navy outdoor courts and raucous crowds, since play was moved indoors. Still, Penn didn't want to take anything for granted. After an average warm up, the Quakers caught fire, racking up wins in every match of the contest without dropping a single set. John Officer, Navy's coach of 11 years, was impressed. "I haven't seen a tougher team coming out of Penn since I've been here," he said. The next day, Penn kicked off the Ivy League season, facing possibly the biggest challenge of the year in perennial powerhouse Princeton. No member of the team could remember the last time the Red and Blue defeated the Tigers. The entire team knew a win here would establish Penn as a serious contender for the Ivy League title. The Quakers started off strongly, capturing two out of the three doubles matches to gain the doubles point. The teams were evenly matched, as each doubles contest was decided by two games or less. But Princeton came back, as its top singles player dispatched of Penn co-captain Neil Aaronson in straight sets to even the match at 1. Penn's Marc Schecter and David Graziani then won at number two and four singles respectively, and the Quakers began to pull away. But Princeton wasn't dead yet. After taking number three singles at the expense of Penn freshman Marc Fisicaro, the Tigers looked like they would even the match up as their number four player went up 3-0 in the third set against Penn's Andreas Olofsson. But Olofsson rallied, storming back to win six out of the next seven games. The junior hit an ace to win the match 6-4 in the third set and clinch the Penn victory. "Andreas did exactly what he needed to," Schecter said. "The wind was awful, and he made sure he got as many shots back as possible. When he could, he'd come up to the net and put away the volley." Miller was ecstatic with his team's performance. He cited last week's heartbreaking loss to Penn State as a major factor in this weekend's success. "Thanks to Penn State, we are tougher," Miller said. "They taught us that we had to prepare the same way for whoever we play. And this week, the guys were wonderful."