M. Tennis heads to Princeton in final tune-up for ECACs next weekend

Youth, inexperience and a time for building. That is the theme surrounding the 1997-98 Penn men's tennis team. Coming off of last weekend's opening event at the Swarthmore Invitational, Quakers coach Gene Miller's team will continue its fall season tomorrow at the Princeton Invitational. Joining Penn at this event will be Miami and Eastern Intercollegiate Tennis Association foes Columbia and Princeton. Despite the implications such a tournament would appear to have, the Princeton Invitational only serves as a prelude to the main event of the fall season, the ECAC Championships, which takes place the weekend of October 3-6. The ECAC is a 16-team elimination tournament in which the winner moves on to play in the ITA Regional Championships, also at Princeton. "Our main season comes in the spring," Miller said. "In terms of the importance of this event, it's building towards that and the ECAC. It gives guys who have not played on the Princeton courts a chance to experience what it is like, and it gives me an opportunity to look at the players and form a nucleus for the rest of the season." It is still too early to tell who will form that nucleus. Miller has intimated he will leave last year's No. 3 doubles team of Dominic Rioux and David Schwartzman together and move them into the spot vacated by the graduation of J.J. Cramer and Brad Goldberg. Penn will also rely heavily upon its captain, Marc Fisicaro, who is the lone senior on the team. "Marc is a very quiet leader, but he's encouraging and the guys love him," Miller said. "He's a natural leader." Looking to be pieces of the puzzle are freshmen Oliver Varban, Joey Zupan and Jamie Wong, a walk-on who has impressed during the early part of practices. Miller also expressed his pleasure with the growth of junior Tejas Patel. "Tejas has really blossomed over the past two weeks," he said. "He's shown that he wants it and that he's willing to work for it, and it shows." In an effort to shore up any uncertainties, the team has a simple goal for the fall season -- to improve. "Everyone wants to talk about winning a championship, but you have to talk about what needs to be done in the process," Miller said. "If we improve, things will take care of themselves." Improvement is the immediate focus, but future success is the ultimate goal. The next step in the road to that goal runs through Princeton.