SEASON PREVIEW: M. Tennis returns core of last year's lineup

The Penn men's tennis team enters its fall season with high hopes and sees a window of opportunity to do some damage in the Ivy League. The Quakers begin their season in two weeks at the ITA National Clay Court Championships in Baltimore, to be followed by a busy October, highlighted by the Eastern Championships at Princeton and the Penn Conference Classic. While many of the other teams in the Ivy League have lost key players, Penn returns most of its starters from last season, including No. 1 and No. 2 singles players Udi Kish and Mark Fisicaro, as well as J.J. Cramer and Brad Goldberg, who will share captain's duties this year. "The team has stayed basically the same," Cramer said. "We have a large talent base and a lot of match experience." Harvard, the perennial powerhouse of the Ivy League, has lost some of its top players and Princeton, the other leading team, has lost four of its starters near the top of its lineup. Dartmouth, another strong team, lost two of its top three singles players this year. Thus, while other teams are rebuilding, the Quakers still have the core of their team in place. Last season, Penn finished with a 16-11 overall record and a mediocre 4-5 record against EITL competition, which includes the other Ivy League teams and Army and Navy. The season was highlighted by a victory over Columbia, a team the Quakers had not defeated in several years, and a ranking in the top 65 in the country. "In each of my years at Penn we have defeated a team that we had not beaten in a while," Cramer said. "This year, we expect at least one really big victory." Last season, the Quakers had some tough loses in matches they could have won and hope that a more experienced team can turn those difficult loses into big victories. In a somewhat depleted Ivy League, Penn has a chance to greatly improve on last year's record and move up among the top teams in the league.