M. Tennis makes use of their brooms

The Quakers did not lose a match against West Virginia or American while hosting the Penn Conference Classic. The Penn men's tennis team began the spring half of the season by making a statement today at Levy Pavilion -- they will fight to win all year. Going into the day, the Quakers knew they would have to be on top of their game to stay ahead of the competition. The team managed to better their expectations, throwing shutouts at both American and West Virginia in the Penn Conference Classic. "It was a solid way to start out the season," Penn coach Gene Miller said. Miller's decisions to mix up the lineup on the opening day of the season proved to be beneficial to the squad's performance. The only Penn doubles team allowed to play in this format was senior J.J. Cramer and freshman Dominic Rioux. This teaming broke up the regionally ranked doubles team of Cramer and his co-captain Brad Goldberg, with Goldberg playing at the third singles spot. "It is always nice to play with J.J., -- he has a great serve. We never played together in the fall, but we have been playing together in practice," Rioux said. These shifts in the lineup proved effective as the doubles partners achieved victory in both matches. After finding their chemistry on the road to victory against American, they were completely dominant in the second match of the day against West Virginia. "It took a little while to get back in the groove of playing a really serious competitive match, to get really focused," Cramer said. The positioning also proved to be to the advantage of Goldberg at the No. 3 position. The senior managed to take both of his matches with relative ease. The rest of the singles bracket also fueled the fire, with several of the members of the Penn team posting easy wins. Top singles player Udi Kish placed a check in the win column in his second match against the Mountaineers. The team format took Kish's first match out of his hands. With the sophomore from Israel up one break in the third set, the match had to be stopped before the end as the team had already claimed victory. "The important thing was the victory for the team," Kish said. Playing at the second spot, junior Marc Fisicaro contributed a 'W' in the first match against American. Fisicaro's second match was also a casualty of the success of the team. The No. 4 post was taken by different men in each of the two matches. In the earlier bid the it was played by Quakers freshman Michael Klatsky. Klatsky emerged victorious, but was unable to play the second match, as he had to leave due to his commitment to Penn's junior varsity basketball team. The team did not miss a beat. The fourth spot was quickly picked up by senior Joel Silman. Silman found no difficulty helping the Quakers to their second sweep of the day, winning in straight sets. Miller was satisfied with the smooth switch of the lineup. "We are going to win a lot of matches because of our depth," the sixth-year Penn coach said. "We have a lot of kids that are going to get a chance to step in, and when they step in they have to produce." Although this match seemed fairly simple in the taking, it by no means gives the Quakers the ability to relax. "The whole team took this match real seriously. The team learned a lot last year after some tough losses, so we gave them the respect they deserved," Cramer said. Although the Quakers were not affected by the unorthodox format (four singles and one doubles instead of five and two), it was a good gauge of the team's preparation. "It is hard to figure out what you need to work on in a match like this, because when you are playing well you are going to roll," Cramer said. Beginning the year with a double sweep in match play gives Penn great hopes for the future. The showing yesterday at home is a stepping stone for the team's goals for the rest of the year.

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