M. Tennis earns win over American foes

The Penn men's tennis team downed American 5-2 at home yesterday. After a long series of close matches, the men's tennis team achieved a hard-earned 5-2 victory over American University in the Levy Tennis Pavilion yesterday afternoon. Penn's third match of the season started off with three doubles matches. Playing No. 1 doubles, senior captain Jordan Szekely and sophomore Eric Sobotka triumphed over their opponents 8-4. The No. 2 doubles team, composed of juniors Brett Meringoff and Dominic Rioux, won 8-4 and the No. 3 doubles team of Robert Pringle -- a Daily Pennsylvanian staff photographer -- and Brian Barki soundly defeated their opponents, 8-6. "We played really well," Rioux said. "They're much better than the teams we played last week [Swarthmore and Villanova]. American has a good, consistent team but they're not overpowering." Penn (3-0) thus earned the doubles point, which goes to the team that wins two out of the three matches. Six Quakers then went on to play a difficult singles lineup. Playing at No. 1 singles, Sobotka consistently challenged opponent Mark Silbilla in a long, close match. After Silbilla won the first set 6-4, the two battled to a second set tiebreaker, with Silbilla winning 8-6. Szekely jumped out to leads of 5-3 in the first set and 5-1 in the second set, eventually beating his opponent 7-6, 6-4. "I should have done a better job in finishing him off," Szekely said. "I got a little complacent. [Winning the match] was a question of my focusing better." At No.3 singles, junior Uday Garg made an impressive comeback after losing the first set 6-4. Despite keeping most of the games close, Garg ultimately fell 4-6, 6-3, 3-6. Meringoff's singles opponent, Manuel Scherer, kept him on the court well into the evening. Meringoff, refusing to be discouraged by Scherer's 6-3 victory in the first set, pulled off a 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 win. Impressive performances by freshmen Barki and Kevin Strouse also contributed to the Quakers' victory. Barki defeated his opponent, Evan Schwartz, 6-2, 6-4. "It's early in the season so no one is playing their best right now," Barki said. "The guy I played made me work for every point. [These kind of matches are] exactly what we need right now to build our confidence for the Ivies." Strouse won his match 6-1, 6-4. He believes his early lead contributed to his victory. "He was a tough player but I was really tough today. I just focused on playing every point as hard as I could," Strouse said. "This [match] was a great tester for us at this point in time," Penn coach Gordie Ernst said. "The matches will get steadily tougher." The team will play West Virginia at home Saturday.