M. Tennis faces Navy in final tune-up before Ivies

While the Quakers look forward to navy, the real focus is on Saturday's Princeton match. Ivy League competition has not even begun and already the Penn men's tennis team has had an impressive season. The Quakers have posted a 9-1 record since the start of the outdoor season and have already equaled their win total from all of last season. Yet the members of the team are far from satisfied with their achievements. This coming weekend may be the most important of the year for the Red and Blue as they host Navy (8-6) tomorrow and then head to the Lenz Center on Saturday to take on Princeton. The match against the Midshipmen will be the Quakers' last warm-up before the Ivy season officially begins the following day. The Quakers are confident that all possible adjustments in the lineup have been made and that the team is playing to its full potential. "Right now we're not working on things anymore, we're just working on winning matches," sophomore Eric Sobotka said. "We're looking for intensity from every player and we have to focus on winning. There's no other thing we can take away from a match. "It's all about winning or losing at this point." While the Quakers are looking forward to a tough match tomorrow against Navy, the real focus of the weekend is the start of Ivy competition -- Saturday's matchup against perennial foe Princeton. While Penn-Princeton games are always interesting, the men's tennis team may actually despise the Tigers (5-3) more than most other Quakers faithful. Last fall, Princeton handed Penn a resounding 7-0 defeat, which the Red and Blue most certainly have not forgotten. "There is no love lost between these teams," Penn captain Jordan Szekely said. "Every ball we've hit since September has pretty much been to beat them this Saturday. It's a school thing, it's a team thing, it's an individual thing. I think there's pretty much a hatred the whole way through the lineup." "There is nobody we want to beat more and as badly as Princeton," Sobotka said. "To be quite honest, I don't like the guys on the team, I don't like anything about the team. I don't like their basketball team. In fact, I don't like anything about the whole damn school." The Quakers head into this weekend's competition riding high after a three-game winning streak in which they beat Georgetown, Army and Boston University by a combined score of 20-1. The lone point lost by Penn was No. 1 Sobotka's loss to the Terriers in singles competition. However, Sobotka has used that disappointing loss as motivation while preparing for the upcoming matches. "I was very disappointed with my match against BU," Sobotka said. "I was kind of cruising through a lot of matches, and this is a wake-up call to me. I'll be ready this weekend, and I'm going to come out with a vengeance." As a team, the Quakers will come out seeking revenge for the drubbing they received at the hands of the Tigers last fall and that strong desire to win is exactly what coach Gordie Ernst wants to see from them. "Sure, on paper these guys are favored. Princeton killed us in the fall," Ernst said. "But we have no pressure on us. I want to see guys completely playing as the underdog and go after them. I want to see them not afraid to put it on the line and really commit themselves to wanting to win." Earning two wins this weekend is exactly what the team plans to achieve. And it is those two victories that the Quakers hope will finally silence their detractors. "We're not just looking to win one, we want to win two," Szekely said. "This weekend is a chance for everyone to prove as an individual, and Penn as a team, that we are for real."