"Chameleon' travels to Boston

No one is sure which version of the Penn men's tennis team will appear this weekend. Penn hopes traveling to the northern climates this weekend won't cool its game down. The Penn men's tennis team will face its toughest two-day stint of the season this weekend when they head north to take on Harvard and Dartmouth. The Quakers will have their work cut out for them in a road trip which will make for hard travel hours and tough opponents. "It's a very long and winding trip, so we've got to be ready," sophomore Udi Kish said. "We can't be mentally tired before we even get there." This idea is recognized by all of the players, though, and the winning attitude has become more the focus than the difficulty of the weekend. Penn coach Gene Miller reflected on the past Harvard matches by saying, "We tended to lose the match before we ever got there." However, the 13-5 Quakers seem to have an entirely new approach, especially considering the 4-0 record in Eastern play. "They are getting the killer mentality in the doubles points and starting to in the singles, just like in the last match; they are going for the jugular," Miller said. "They are going into this match excited. Penn's four-game win streak in the EITA has not surprised them, or the rest of the competition for that matter. "You have a coach who has worked extremely hard and who has assembled a group of players who has worked equally as hard, so they deserve what they are starting to achieve," Harvard coach David Fisch said. The Crimson (9-5, 1-0 EITA) come into the match after a respectable start. But Harvard has plummeted from its preseason rank of 17th in the nation to its current No. 37 position. The five-week drop in ranking, as well as the lack of Eastern league play leaves them with much to prove. Their only league win came at the disposal of Army, a team Penn also handled last weekend. The Quakers are confident they can create more questions about the Harvard game. "There are teams that have beaten them that didn't belong there, and teams that they have handled really well," Miller said. "We just have to go out and compete." The players bring similar feelings to the table about this matchup. Knowing Harvard is an attacking team that likes to put away opponents early, the Quakers are looking to extend the points to take the match. Penn junior Marc Fisicaro sighted them as having a team of "mostly serve and volley players." Miller feels Penn can dictate the style of play simply by staying in the points for more than four or five strokes, disrupting the straight away, coming to the net style of play. Saturday will be still more pivotal for the Penn squad, regardless of the Friday match. "It would be nice to come out of the trip with two wins -- if we do then we control our own destiny," Fisicaro said. "But the Dartmouth match is huge. Either way it is a must-win match." Miller describes the Big Green as a team displaying a mixture of play. Several of their players bring big serves every time. Dartmouth keys around two or three big players, who will dictate their competition that day. "All the guys keep saying that all we have to do is be better than Harvard one day, but even then we have to go to Dartmouth the next day," Kish said. Dartmouth will bring a 9-3 overall record to the courts in New Hampshire. This will be their first EITA contest, a factor that will help Penn, since Dartmouth has yet to see Eastern play. The Big Green have chalked up their "W's" against teams such as Loyola Marymount, College of the Desert (Ca.) and Providence. Their setbacks came at the hands of San Diego, Utah, as well as Penn in the fall. The trip will be tenuous for the Penn team as a whole. Kish stressed the level of preparation that the upperclassmen on the team have been emphasizing. "The Penn program is a program to be reckoned with in the Ivy League," Fisch said. Friday Penn will go into Cambridge and in the words of Miller they "would like to see what color the chameleon will show up as."

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