Tigers halt M. Tennis' bid for successful Ivy opener

The Penn men's tennis team saw a four-match win streak snapped with losses to Navy and Princeton. On March 27, the Penn men's tennis team matched last season's total of nine wins when it defeated Army. But now the Quakers seem stuck on that number. After an excellent start to the season, Penn lost both its Friday match against Navy, 7-0, and its Saturday match at Princeton, 6-1. The Quakers had been riding high with four straight victories, including an easy 7-0 defeat of the Cadets only a week earlier. And they were prepared to take down another branch of the armed forces on Friday when Navy travelled to the Lott Courts. Historically, Penn (9-4, 0-1 Ivy League) has not had problems dealing with Navy -- last year the Quakers came away with a 5-2 win. This year would prove different, however, as the Midshipmen (8-5) shut out the surprised Quakers, 7-0. Only two members of the Red and Blue -- No. 1 Eric Sobotka and No. 3 Jordan Szekely -- were able to stretch their singles matches to three sets. Both won their second set 6-4, but Sobotka lost the third set 6-4 and Szekely fell 6-2. "We beat them last year so Navy came out extremely ready to play," senior captain Szekely said. "I think some of our guys, including myself, maybe got a little nervous and we weren't as aggressive as we should have been. "It's one those things where everybody pretty much just got their ass kicked." One of the reasons for the Quakers' poor play against Navy may have been that in anticipating the Princeton match, the Red and Blue did not maintain the focus they needed to beat the Midshipmen. Coach Gordie Ernst believes the Quakers were victims of what he termed "the looking-past-your-first-opponent-in-a-two-game-series syndrome." "The team forgot that Navy is a hungry, feisty team that came into our building, onto our property, and so we let them walk all over us," Ernst said. While the Quakers may not have come out with all guns firing against Navy, the team traveled to Princeton the next day, prepared to give the Tigers (11-5, 1-0) all they had in their Ivy League season opener. However, the match result would add another mark to the Quakers' loss column, as Penn succumbed 6-1 to the hated Tigers. While the score was not what the Red and Blue had hoped for, there were some bright points in the loss. For one, the Quakers improved on their poor showing against Princeton in the fall, when the Tigers swept the match, 7-0. Furthermore, Szekely was able to record his first win ever against the Tigers in his last chance to do so. Playing at No. 4, Szekely came back from losing the first set, 6-2, to defeat Kevin Woo -- winning the final sets 6-2, 6-1, to earn the Quakers' lone win against Princeton. "I had never beaten Princeton before so I guess I finally can graduate now," Szekely said. "I don't have to be a bitter athlete at 60 years old." While Szekely played well individually, the team also played a relatively good match overall. The final score of 6-1 was deceiving, for the Quakers had opportunities to win a number of matches. In doubles, the Quakers lost tight 8-6 matches at the No. 1 and No. 3 spots. Furthermore, in addition to Szekely's win, the Nos. 1, 5 and 6 singles matches went to tiebreakers in the second set. "We were down 3-1 in points and the last three matches that were on all went to tiebreakers. If they had gone to a third set, it's a whole different match," Ernst said. "That says something. A couple of points and we could have won that match." The biggest difference between the Navy match and the Princeton match, while perhaps not reflected in the score, proved to be the intensity and competitiveness the Quakers showed. "Against Princeton we were in almost all of the matches and we made them beat us, whereas I think we probably beat ourselves for the most part on Friday," Szekely said. Now, after seeing their four-game winning streak turn into a two-game losing streak, the Quakers must forget about the losses and focus on this weekend's important Ivy League matches at Brown and Yale. "Setbacks happen to everyone individually and as a team, the difference is how people react after the setback," Szekely said. With any luck, the Quakers will be able to us the losses as motivation for a new winning streak this weekend.