M. Tennis rumbles past Cornell, Cadets

It was business as usual at Lott Tennis Courts this weekend as the Penn men's tennis squad made quick work of visitors Cornell and Army. The Red and Blue didn't lose a match in either contest, improving their overall record to 13-3. Cornell came out fighting. The Big Red managed to keep two of the doubles matches very close, and the Quakers had to battle for the point. Penn sophomores J.J. Cramer and Brad Goldberg had three match points against them before coming back to win at No. 1. The No. 3 team of Andreas Olofsson and Marc Fisicaro had some problems at the beginning as well, but managed to win in a tiebreaker. "We both usually play singles," Olofsson said. "We weren't used to playing doubles so we had a slow start." The Quakers had no trouble with any of the singles matches, winning all but one in straight sets. Penn's Ivy League record now stands at 2-0. "The guys looked impressive," Penn coach Gene Miller said. "They were hitting the ball very well. There's a few details we need to work on, but overall they were pretty sharp." Army marched into town Saturday, but it was Penn who did the better impression of a Sherman Tank, rolling over the Cadets to emerge with yet another 7-0 victory. This time the Quakers didn't even lose a single set. Seven of the 13 Quaker victories this season have been decided by that score. But the Army team left its mark on Penn. Although clearly outmatched, the tenacious Cadets never gave up, breaking back after losing service games and fighting for every point. "When one player wins the first set easily, the other one usually starts to lower their level of play," said Olofsson. "But not these guys -- they never quit." In fact, the Cadets displayed the composure Penn has been striving for all season. Watching the Army gave the Quakers a model to emulate. Miller was impressed. "Whenever you take a team that's losing, you see them getting frustrated," he said. "But this Army team was tough -- they fought for everything and never showed any emotion. That's how we want to be, and right now, we're pretty close to that ideal." As Penn approaches the midpoint of its season, no one player has emerged as a star. Instead, the team seems to be peaking as a whole, and that's exactly what it needs.