M. Tennis dominates in season openers

After a disappointing fall season under new coach Gordie Ernst, the Penn men's tennis team aced its first tests of the spring season. The Quakers (2-0) dominated opponents Villanova and Swarthmore at the Levy Tennis Pavilion last Saturday, defeating the Wildcats 6-1 and shutting out the Garnet 7-0. Penn more than doubled its opponents in total games won in singles matches, 147-65, and won all six doubles matches. The only Quaker to lose even a set on the day was No. 3 singles player and Purdue University transfer Uday Garg, who dropped his match to Villanova's Paul Moore in a tough three-setter, 6-2, 2-6, 7-6 (7-5). "Uday played a pretty good opponent," Ernst said. "[Moore] kept a lot of balls in the court. Uday is better than him, but was very nervous and didn't play his game. He let the other player dictate the pace of the match." The butterflies were not limited to Garg, however, as the Quakers have several freshmen contributors who had to adjust to their first college competition. Fortunately, Saturday's opponents were ideal for this transition. "They're not Princeton," Ernst said of Villanova (0-1) and Swarthmore (0-1), "but they're decent teams. We were just a deeper, stronger team." Freshmen Brian Barki and Kevin Strouse both took advantage of the relatively weak opponents. Barki, playing at No. 5, beat Villanova's Ramon Prats 7-5, 6-1. Strouse won both of his matches in straight sets as Penn's sixth-seed. Eric Sobotka, Jordan Szekely and Brett Meringoff led the scoring for Penn. Each went 2-0 in singles competition. Senior captain Szekely was particularly dominant, dropping only three games total in straight-set victories over Villanova's Stephen Smith and Swarthmore's Nick Slimak. In doubles competition, the Quakers used different combinations in each match, but the outcome -- a Penn victory -- was the same each time. The Quakers will have tougher competition this week. They face American University on Thursday and West Virginia on Saturday. The key match will be against the Mountaineers. "That's the real test," Ernst said. "That match will show us where we stand against our Ivy foes."