M. Tennis splits with Brown and Yale

The Penn men's tennis team was hoping for a sweep to move itself to .500 in the Ivies, but the Quakers beat only the Bears. The Penn men's tennis team entered the weekend with a mission -- a mission to even their EITA record at 4-4 by defeating Brown and Yale. The weekend didn't quite go the Quakers' way. The Red and Blue (9-12, 3-5 EITA) did pick up a 6-1 victory over the Bears (11-6, 1-6) in Providence Friday, but the Elis (14-5, 4-2) downed Penn 6-1 the following day. Coming off a huge win against Dartmouth the previous Saturday, the Quakers looked to start a winning streak Friday by taking care of Brown. "We were very pumped up for Brown," junior Urs Baertschi said. Penn got off to a good start by sweeping the three doubles matches. The doubles team of senior Marc Fisicaro and Baertschi struck first, winning 8-5. The duo of junior Jordan Szekely and freshman Eric Sobotka clinched the doubles point with a 8-4 victory. Sophomore Dominic Rioux and junior Dave Schwartzman completed the sweep with a 8-6 victory. Penn also took five of six singles points. The top three singles players -- Fisicaro, Baertschi and Szekely -- won easily, each in two sets to make the score 4-0, sealing the victory. These three singles matches were completed in a brief one hour, 20 minutes. At No. 2 singles, Baertschi took his match from Yale's Chris Wolfe 6-2, 6-4. "I was totally fired up in the first set." Baertschi said. "In the second, he went up 3-0 -- he was playing brilliantly. I held, broke back, held and after an extremely long game at 3-3, I managed to break him." Dominic Rioux lost his first-set tiebreak but rebounded nicely, winning the last two sets of the match 6-3, 6-0. Yale's Venkatesh Iyer accounted for the single Brown point, defeating Schwartzman 6-4, 7-6 (7-3). Penn's Sobotka required three sets to defeat his opponent, Kushal Muhotna, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. "We were more aggressive, we played really smart, really solid. We were all striking the ball," Sobotka said. Sobotka was the only Penn player to win both of his singles matches over the weekend. He defeated Eli Mark Warnken in three sets 6-1, 3-6, 6-4. "It was a long battle against a definitely established player [Warnken] who is among the best [four players] in the East," Sobotka said. "It was one of my better weekends. I worked hard all week, I was able to pull through this weekend. I did the things I haven't been able to do all season." The rest of the team couldn't get the job done. In doubles, Penn lost all three of their matches. The Fisicaro/Baertschi duo hung tough against their opponents, taking the match to a 8-8 tie. They succumbed in the tiebreak, 7-4. However, the closeness of that particular match did not translate to the singles round. "As a team, we didn't show up to play a match," Baertschi said. Baertschi lost to Scott Carlton 6-2, 6-2. "I was very impatient, very emotional," Baertschi said of his match. "I had a headache. I was tired, but as a player you have to personally stick those things away, and I failed to stick those things away." Two of the matches featured tiebreaks. Fisicaro gave Andrew Tang a run for his money in the second set after losing the first set 6-3. He lost the second set 7-6. Szekely lost the first set 7-6 to David Beynet and was unable to keep up the effort, losing 6-3 in the second. Dominic Rioux took Kevin Park to three sets before falling in the third 6-2.