M. Tennis gets caught in Hurricane's path at Levy

The Penn men's tennis team was shut out by a nationally ranked Miami team, 7-0, at Levy Pavilion Saturday. The Penn men's tennis team thought its match Saturday against Miami was going to be tough but close. The match was tough, and the individual matches were tightly contested, but the final score was by no means close. The Hurricanes shut out the host Quakers 7-0 at Levy Pavilion. The opening doubles matches fit the Quakers' expectations, with the Hurricanes edging out Penn 2-1 to earn the one doubles point. The Quaker duo of Marc Fisicaro and Urs Baertschi took down Mark Arrowsmith and Arpad Odry 9-8, (8-6) in the tiebreaker, but by then the doubles round had already been decided as the other two matches had been completed with the Hurricanes on top. Miami's Rudy Rake and Fernando Borja beat the Quakers' junior Jordan Szekely and freshman Oliver Varban 8-4 and the Hurricanes' Arturo Zizold and Diego Ayala team got by Penn's sophomore Dominic Rioux and junior Dave Schwartzman duo 8-5. As the singles matched got underway, the Quakers' only senior, captain Marc Fisicaro, faced last year's national No. 1 Junior and national No. 1 recruit in Rudy Rake. Rake also played in last year's U. S. Open. "Marc will probably lose 6-0, 6-0, but everyone else has a shot," a thumb-injured sophomore starter Mike Klatsky said as the singles matches got underway. Fisicaro proved Klatsky wrong by taking three straight games from Rake to open the second set. Fisicaro fought through long baseline rally after long baseline rally to take those three games before Rake closed out the match 6-0, 6-3. "After the first set, I tried to cut down on the amount of unforced errors," Fisicaro said. "He got a little bit tentative during those three games but then he tightened it up a bit." Four of the other five singles matches went to three sets, but the Quakers couldn't win any of the decisive third sets. After dropping the first set, Baertschi overcame a 3-0 deficit against Miami's Arturo Zizold in the second set to force a third set. "I broke him twice in the third set," Baertschi said. "At 5-3, I was up 15-30 on his serve and he hit three aces." The last ace was a monster down the "T" line and ended the match at 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 in favor of Zizold. Penn junior Dave Schwartzman played an inspired match against Fernando Borja. Schwartzman took the first set from Borja 6-3 but struggled in the second set. "I played pretty well. I hit the ball the way I wanted to," Schwartzman said. "I didn't get done what I needed to do mentally." Nonetheless, Schwartzman's third set play was termed "intense" by teammate Klatsky. "I don't think I've ever seen him this intense" Klatsky said while taking in the match. Schwartzman nevertheless lost the third set 6-4. Freshman Eric Sobotka opened his match against Diego Ayala with a 6-3 first set win. Ayala then took the last two sets, 6-3 and 6-2. "My intensity level kind of dropped off [after the first set]. I wasn't able to apply pressure," Sobotka said. "He kept hitting the ball harder and deeper, and I made mistakes." In another close match, Miami's Johan Lindqvist defeated junior Jordan Szekely, 7-5, 5-7, 6-2. Arpad Ordy of Miami beat sophomore Dominic Rioux in straight sets, 6-4, 6-1. "He wore me down" Rioux said, which turned out to be indicative of the outcomes of all the matches.