M. Tennis sweeps a pair from Atlantic 10 at Levy Pavilion

The Penn men's tennis team evened its record at 3-3 by defeating George Washington in a competitive match 4-3 and shutting out St. Bonaventure 7-0 Saturday at Levy Pavilion. The Red and Blue expected to take both matches from the Atlantic-10 teams, although Penn knew the match with the Colonials wasn't going to be easy. In the recent history of the series, the matches similarly have been close. Saturday, Penn won 4-3, but in 1996, GW was on the winning end of the same score when the match was played in Philly. The Quakers took the '94 match by the same 4-3 score. "We respect GW. We always expect them to come in here and play hard," junior Urs Baertschi said. The day started with doubles matches against the Colonials. The Penn duo of junior Dave Schwartzman and sophomore Dominic Rioux defeated GW's Brad Shafran and Brent Grossman 8-2. The Quakers tandem of junior Jordan Szekely and freshman Oliver Varban edged out a tough team of Scott Lowder and Evan Harte 8-6 to secure the one doubles point. Penn No. 1 player Marc Fisicaro and Baertschi suffered a tough loss to the Colonials' Kent Wright and Anders Bergkvist. "We were down a break, we broke back, but I couldn't hold serve at 7-7," said Baertschi. In singles, the bottom three Quakers propelled Penn to victory while the top three stumbled. For example, Szekely disposed of his opponent as the sixth man rather easily, 6-1, 6-2. Meanwhile, sophomore Mike Klatsky fell to an experienced senior in Shafran in No. 3 singles 6-1, 6-3. No. 4 Schwartzman beat Colonial Scott Lowder 6-3, 6-4, and No. 5 freshman Eric Sobotka handled his opponent 6-1, 7-5. Sobotka survived a scare in the second set to secure the Penn triumph. "In the second set, he played a little bit better," Sobotka said. "He started hitting the ball softer and started making me generate my own power." Baertschi lost an excruciatingly close first set 7-6 and fell in the second set 6-3. "In the first set, there were no breaks and I lost in the tiebreaker. In the second set, he went up 4-1 and I broke him twice to make it 5-3 but I couldn't hold my serve again," Baertschi said. In the only three-setter of the match, Penn captain Fisicaro fell 6-4, 2-6, 6-4. While Penn coach Gene Miller was proud of the team for coming through and getting a much-needed win, he was a bit taken by the development of the match. "We won in doubles and I expected us to take it from there, but we had a let up," Miller said. "I was surprised. I felt we could have risen to the occasion a little better. It's nice, though, to get the win." The team shared in Miller's sentiments. "Whenever you can squeak out a win it's a good thing, but it was closer than we would have liked," Szekely said. Miller noted the efforts of the team, and its ability to overcome the pressure of a close match. "We're getting better as a team. These are a great bunch of guys, and you're going to have games where certain things you expect to happen don't happen," Miller said. Sobotka pointed out that it was the latter three players who were primarily responsible for the Quakers' strong showing. "I think we have one of the best bottom lineups in the Ivy League," said Sobotka. "We're very deep. Szekely is a very, very tough six." Against an inferior St. Bonaventure, some players who don't normally see action beat up on the Bonnies. Varban played No. 4 singles and won 6-3, 6-3. Quakers freshman Joey Zupan (No. 5) defeated sophomore Nate Herendeen of the Bonnies 6-0, 6-0. Adam Harris (No. 6) won 6-0, 6-4 against Bonnie Matt Traub. The Penn duo of sophomore Brian Konigsberg and freshman Jamee Wong came back from a 5-2 hole to win 9-7 in the only remotely close match.