M. Tennis gets mixed results in ECAC tuneup

In their first and only exposure to Ivy League tennis before this weekend's Eastern Colleges Athletic Conference championships, eight players from the Penn men's tennis team competed in the Princeton Fall Invitational with an unusual, but still successful, outcome. The tournament was an individual competition in which there were no seeds. Everyone was thrown into a large draw and was playing to win the whole tournament. "Even though we didn't win the tournament, lots of guys did win matches which should be good down the line for our individual matches," Penn coach Gene Miller said. In the each of the last two years, a Penn player had won the tournament. Although none of the Quakers won the tournament this year, there were more players who won matches even though none of them advanced past the quarterfinals. On the final day of competition, three Penn players competed deep in the consolation round, which they entered after losing their first-round matches. Penn senior captain Marc Fisicaro lost in the quarterfinals to Scott Watnick from Columbia, 3-6, 4-6. He believes the loss in his fourth match in two days was due to fatigue. "I was a little tired," Fisicaro said. "I played on Tuesday at Baltimore and was up early on Friday and Saturday. I didn't play as sharp as I'd like to have played. It was a combination of everything." Penn junior Tejas Patel defeated Princeton's Jeff Schacter, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, in a three-hour first-round match, but lost his second-round match to the eventual winner of entire tournament Steve Millerman of Columbia, 3-6, 3-6, on the same day. "I was really tired and the [Millerman] was really good," Patel said. "I played one hour after the first match. I wasn't moving well." Penn junior David Schwartzman was the only other Quaker to advance past the first round, but lost a tough three-set match to Princeton's Kevin Woo, 3-6, 6-4, 3-6. Three freshmen also competed in this weekend's event, and although all ended up competing in the consolation bracket after losing their first-round matches, they played well. Joey Zupan advanced to the third round of the consolation round and ended up losing to the winner of that bracket, Jeff Schacter, 4-6, 1-6. Eric Sobotka also faced Schacter and lost in the second round, 4-6, 1-6. Oliver Varban lost in his first consolation round to Miami's Arpao Odry, 2-6, 2-6. Dominic Rioux made it to the second round of consolation matches, but lost to Princeton's Shai Ingber in a difficult three-set match, 6-1, 6-3, 6-1. Urs Baertschi lost in the first round of the consolation bracket to Princeton's David Schonbrann(1-6, 3-6). "This weekend was important because there was a lot of team unity, a good work ethic and great discipline," Miller said. "No matter who it is, we can knock off a top gun. We can outsmart anyone, and that's what this game is about. Most of our players at least won something."