Miller's M. Tennis tenure closes with a loss

The credits roll and the screen fades to black on Penn men's tennis 1997-98 season. It was the end of a disappointing season, the end of senior Marc Fisicaro's seat at first singles and the end of Gene Miller's days as the Quakers' head coach. The final note was discordant as the Quakers (9-13, 3-7 EITA, 2-5 Ivy League) fell to Columbia, 4-3, on the Lott outdoor courts, thus marking their second straight loss in as many weeks and their fifth and final Ivy League loss. The matches began with a Quakers' doubles sweep when the duo of Fisicaro and junior Urs Baertschi won 9-8 over Columbia's Galil Seshadri and Scott Watnik. They were followed by consecutive wins by freshman Oliver Varban and junior David Schwartzman, 8-6, and junior Jordan Szekely and freshman Eric Sobotka, 8-5. The Quakers seemed to be on the road to victory as Baertschi took second singles 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, while Szekely continued to rack up the wins with a 4-6, 6-0, 6-0 result. The cracks started to show, however, when Fisicaro lost to Seshadri 6-2, 7-6 after defeating him in doubles. "It surprised me," Baerstchi said. "Marc lost a close one after beating the same guy in the fall [season]." The downward spiral continued as fourth and fifth singles lost with decisive 6-1, 6-2 and 6-1, 6-3 results. The deciding match resulted in a tiebreaker loss by freshman Varban to Columbia's Donny Opici, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3, thus allowing the Lions to barely squeak by after the five-hour match. "It was exactly the opposite of what I thought," Baerstchi said. "I believed we would lose in the first couple sets and the losses at the last three were unexpected. The final result was disappointing." The Lions now stand in an elite position, coming in second to Ivy title holders, Harvard. They finish with a 16-4 season record and 8-1 EITA record. Saturday's defeat leaves the Red and Blue sixth in the Ivy League standings, five places away from Harvard, who top the standings with 6-0 EITA and 20-3 season record. The loss marks the end of Gene Miller's career at Penn after seven years coaching men's tennis and leaving his own mark on the program. "[Coach Miller] deserves a lot of credit for bringing this program to a higher standard," Baerstchi said. "He's done a marvelous job recruiting and fundraising. He's also taught us a lot about discipline and life values that will be really valuable later down the line." "He's done a great job behind the scenes," Szekely said. "He's beefed up the schedule and made us play some really difficult teams." In light of Miller's retirement, the Quakers face new possibilities under a new head coach. Multiple sources have implied that Mark Riley, head coach at Kansas and the man who brought the Jayhawks to a No. 9 ranking in his first season, may be a possible candidate to fill Miller's vacancy. The Malvern, Pa., native coached one year as a Quakers assistant coach for men and women's tennis. The curtain now goes down on another lost Quakers season, but in this case perhaps the sequel will be better than its predecessor.