Penn State slips past M. Tennis to earn Holmes Cup

The Quakers had no trouble defeating Swarthmore and St. Joseph's in recent matches. The "not Penn State" chants came to Levy Pavilion, when the Penn men's tennis team took on the Nittany Lions in the battle for state bragging rights last weekend. The match with Penn St. is an annual event, with the winner taking home the Holmes Cup for a year. The PSU matchup was only half of a dual match that also included St. Joseph's. Penn met the Lions in the earlier of the two matches on Saturday. The Quakers were unable to take the "W" and the cup, losing a tight match, 4-3. "Penn State is one of those teams that is able to get the most out of each of the players' abilities, so they play tough even when they aren't as talented as their opponent," Penn senior co-captain J.J. Cramer said. This proved to be true against the Quakers. The Penn team started on the right track, taking the doubles point. The doubles team of senior co-captains Cramer and Brad Goldberg was able to pull out a tough match, winning, 9 -7. The other doubles win was by Dominic Rioux and David Schwartzman, who took their opponents to a tiebreaker before winning, 9-8 (7-5). Penn's momentum did not carry through the singles matches. Sophomore Udi Kish and senior Joel Silman were unable to capture victories at No. 1 and No. 2. Quakers junior Marc Fisicaro got the team back on track with a victory at No. 3 singles, defeating Colin Smeeton, 6-2, 7-6 (7-4). The only other Penn victory came from freshman Michael Klatsky, who won in straight sets, 6-0, 6-4. The remaining singles matches went the way of Penn St., as they edged out the Quakers in the end, giving Penn their fifth loss of the Spring against seven wins. "It was a great college tennis match, and one of the best doubles points I have ever seen in a tennis match at this level," sixth-year Penn coach Gene Miller said. The evening match showed a completely different set of results as the Quakers team took on St. Joe's. The match headed the way of Penn in a decisive shutout victory of 7-0. "The St. Joe's match was great for the Big 5, and as a way of trying to get the city community involved in tennis," Miller said. The doubles teams made fairly quick work of capturing the point for Penn, as Miller gave some experience to his freshman class. The front four doubles players were all from the new class, headed by Dennis Baden and Brett Meringoff at No. 1. All three teams took their matches, and gave Penn a good start. The singles lineup contained a few familiar names, such as Rioux, sophomore Jordan Szekely and Schwartzman. These three earned straight set victories at the top three singles spots. No Penn player lost a singles match against St. Joe's, giving the squad a shot in the arm for Tuesday night's match at Swarthmore. "It is more important to establish a winning attitude, always trying to be better and an do more every time," Miller said after the weekend match. The Penn team made this theory into practice Tuesday night, and destroyed the Swarthmore squad, 7-0. "The team went out and took care of business, and didn't go through the motions," Cramer said. "We went out to get the match over as fast as possible, and before we knew it people were already walking off the courts with wins." No Penn player lost a match. The doubles teams mixed up a little bit, pairing Fisicaro and Cramer together, as well as Goldberg and Rioux. Neither team took long to develop chemistry as both won easily (8-4 and 8-5, respectively). The singles players showed even less difficulty, as no Quaker was taken to a third set. No singles player even lost more than four games in a set. The Red and Blue will now face their most crucial weekend of play, meeting both Princeton and Navy this weekend. Both matches will be away. The Quakers will look to start the Ivy League season off on the right foot, and "not be Penn St.," as the Lions bowed out to Princeton earlier this year.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.