M. Tennis faces early must-win at home dual meet

After two losses to quality opponents, the Quakers look to rebound atainst George Washington and St. Bonaventure. The Penn men's tennis team is sick of losing. "It's one of the most important practice weeks of this year. We need to take care of business," Penn coach Gene Miller said. The Quakers (1-3) must beat George Washington and St. Bonaventure this weekend to improve their season record to .500. The dual meet begins with the Colonials at noon, and continues when the Quakers resume play at 5 p.m. against the Bonnies. "Its an important regional match. We need to win it," junior David Schwartzmann said. "These are guys in our region. We need to beat these teams," Miller concurred. The Quakers have played several teams over the last few weeks. Six matches, including GW and the Bonnies, count toward the team record. In the last two matches, the Red and Blue lost to West Virginia (4-3) and nationally ranked Miami (7-0). The team is taking the losses in stride, however, and is putting them in perspective. "Even though we lost to Miami, everyone played well," freshman Eric Sobotka said. "We lost in three sets to some of the best players in college tennis. We gained some confidence from that." "Last week is done with and we have more matches," sophomore Adam Harris said. "It doesn't make sense to dwell in the past or we'll definitely lose again." The Red and Blue have found success against the two squads in the past. Penn posted wins over the two teams last season, beating the Colonials and Bonnies with scores of 6-1 and 7-0, respectively. "Doubles will be important. They are the key," Schwartzmann said "It should be tough, but we should win." The Quakers believe they understand the reasons for the previous losses and hope use the experiences in the future. "We don't do well winning the close matches. We can push teams to three sets, but we don't go for the kill in the end," Harris said. The Quakers have lost both team matches and individual ones -- in the case of the Illinois Invitational format -- to higher ranked opponents. The final scores do not speak for themselves, however, because most of the losses to the higher ranked teams have been in close three set games. Nevertheless, the team's play has been plagued by needless concentration mistakes based on fear of the ranked teams or under-estimation of their weaker opponents. The correction of these errors bodes well for the rest of the Quakers' season. Miller has been working on team errors by running through drills that put emphasis on the mistake and forcing the corrections. "We set up patterns for ourselves, when to go for the shot, when to hold back and use defensive skills to get the ball back deep," Miller said "Then you pick the right shot at the right time. Many errors are caused by not choosing the right shot." As the team heads into Saturday's dual meet, they face a loss of another kind. Junior Tejas Patel left the team to pursue a less rigorous life. "He's played tennis for many years. He wanted to move on and try something else and wanted to experience other things in college," teammate and roommate Schwartzmann said. "[Patel's] a great player and a great guy. Sometimes guys need a break," Miller said. "It's a lot of work and time." Despite the losses of previous matches and a top player, the Quakers first priority must be getting to .500 before the rest of spring play continues.