New England foes ace M. Tennis

Going into this weekend, the Penn men's tennis team was on a roll. Winners of six straight contests, the Quakers were unbeaten in conference play, leading the Eastern Intercollegiate Tennis Association with a 4-0 record. The Red and Blue entered the season ranked in the low 80s in the national standings and finally cracked the top 50 last week, coming into the weekend at No. 44. After finishing in the middle of the EITA standings last year, Penn was ready to challenge for one of the top spots. But although the Quakers are moving up, Dartmouth and Harvard showed them they still have a way to go. Friday the team travelled to Hanover, N.H., to face the Big Green. The first point decided was doubles. Penn lost at No. 1, as Neil Aaronson and Dave Graziani succumbed to a strong Dartmouth pair, but Brad Goldberg and J.J. Cramer were victorious at No. 2. Penn's No. 3 team of Marc Schecter and Joel Silman narrowly lost 9-8, and Dartmouth won the crucial doubles point. The Big Green's No.1 doubles team split up and continued to dominate their opponents, taking the No. 1 and No. 3 singles matches as well. Suddenly Penn was down 3-0, and the pressure was on Penn's No. 5, Andreas Oloffson. One more Penn loss would guarantee a Dartmouth victory. After losing the first set 4-6, Oloffson fought back to take the second, forcing a third and deciding set. But his opponent turned it up and clinched the win for Dartmouth by taking the final set, 6-3. "I played my heart out, but he really picked it up in the third set," Oloffson said. "That's how everybody played -- as a team we had good matches, but we just came out a little bit short." Although the contest had been decided, Graziani and Cramer won at No. 4 and No. 6 respectively to make the final score 5-2. The next day, the Quakers faced Harvard, a team that had beaten them 6-1 in the fall and was ranked No. 25 earlier in the season. The score was the same as it was in the autumn, but Penn's tennis was not. The first time, the Red and Blue lost most of their matches in straight sets. Saturday was a different story. Penn came out fighting, splitting the first two doubles matches, but surrendered the point after the No. 3 team of Schecter and Silman barely lost its match, 9-7. Four of the six singles matches went to three sets, but only Cramer, at No. 6, emerged victorious. "We were definitely in the match," Goldberg said. "Everyone gave it their best shot and we played well."