M. Tennis outduels Ivy foes at princeton Invite

Six Quakers took the courts against three other schools at the Princeton Fall Invite. When a Quakers team competes against the Princeton Tigers, the results are nearly always memorable. That held true this weekend, as the Penn men's tennis team journeyed to Old Nassau for the Princeton Fall Invitational. Surprisingly, though, it was not the competition that the Red and Blue found formidable. This weekend was the first real test of the Penn racketeers as they faced their first Ivy competition of the year in of Princeton and Columbia. The University of South Carolina also attended the tournament and it was the non-Ivy team that stole the show. "South Carolina is a top-10 school," Penn freshman Ryan Harwood said, "so they kind of dominated throughout." And though Penn kept running into the brick wall that was South Carolina, they managed to declaw both the Lions and Tigers. Three of the six Quakers represented at the tournament -- Harwood, Frantisek Stejskal and co-captain Eric Sobotka -- did not lose a match to either Ivy League opponent. Harwood, in only his second weekend competing for Penn, defeated top Columbia freshman Peter Holik -- who was also recruited by Penn -- in three sets, 5-7, 6-1, 6-2. "When we found out Ryan was playing [Holik] we were pretty psyched because when this kid came to visit last year he walked around like he was king of the world," co-captain Brett Meringoff said. "When he decided not to come to Penn, we were upset that we lost a good player but we weren't upset that we lost a big ego. "When Ryan won, that kind of just shut him up." Though Harwood lost in the second round to South Carolina's Robert Steckley and Stejskal succumbed to the Gamecocks' Guillaume Legat, Sobotka advanced to the quarterfinals. He then lost to top seed Jerome Jourdon of South Carolina. Most impressive about Sobotka's trip to the quarterfinals is that to do so, he beat Princeton's Darren Joe, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2, a player to whom he lost last season. Penn coach Gordie Ernst -- never one to downplay the Penn-Princeton rivalry -- was very excited about Sobotka's showing. "Anytime we get a win over a Princeton Tiger, I'm happy," Ernst said. "That Tiger came out roaring and he went away purring like a pussy cat. "Eric looked like Siegfried and Roy out there, the way he was taming those Tigers." And, while Ernst was excited over Sobotka's strong performance, he was just as pleased with the doubles team of Harwood and Meringoff. In their first match together, the two combined to beat Princeton's duo of Trevor Smith and Judson Williams, 8-5, before running into South Carolina again. In a hard-fought match, the Quakers eventually lost 9-8 to the tournament's second-seeded team of Jourdon and Steckley. Meringoff, the only senior on the team, was quick to praise his new freshman doubles partner. "Ryan is showing a lot of maturity and experience," Meringoff said. "I think he knows that he's just as talented as anyone on this level, and he's showing it by the way he's competing." Harwood and the rest of the Quakers are now in the final stages of tuning, as they begin to gear up for their ECAC season which begins in less than two weeks. This weekend's results, coupled with some solid performances last weekend at Penn State, are exactly what the Quakers were hoping to see.