The Lions are 5-0 in the league and visit the Quakers this afternoon. The Penn men's tennis team has had something to prove all season after a frustrating 1-6 finish in the Ivy League last year. They will have a chance to show just how far they have come when they square off against Ivy League-leading Columbia today at 2 p.m. at the Lott Courts. Tomorrow, the Quakers will close their regular season by traveling to Cornell for a match at the Reis Tennis Center. This weekend marks the end of an already impressive campaign for the Red and Blue, who currently hold an 11-9 overall record (3-2 Ivy). "We're looking forward to this weekend," Penn junior Rob Pringle said. "It could be our chance to go 5-2." The Quakers' turnaround is more impressive given that they are without a senior player in the regular lineup. With wins against Brown, Yale and Dartmouth, the young Quakers have emerged from the Ivy League basement and are challenging for their first winning league record since finishing 5-4 in the EITA in 1997. Penn's biggest test of the year will come today against a Columbia team that owns a 15-5 record. The Lions are currently enjoying a 10-match winning streak that includes their first five Ivy League contests. The Lions feature a fearsome singles order from top to bottom that includes Australian native Akram Zaman at the top spot. Zaman teams with senior Salil Seshadri to form one of the strongest doubles pairs in the Ivy League this year. Junior Steve Millerman was a unanimous first team All-Ivy selection last year and an All-EITA team selection as a freshman in 1998. Seshadri joined him as an All-Ivy first teamer last year and was EITA Player of the Year as a sophomore in 1998. "Columbia is good, but players on our team have beat their players before," Pringle said. Columbia could lock up its first championship since 1994 against Princeton tomorrow but must first face the resurgent Quakers. Cornell, meanwhile, has not enjoyed the success of Columbia and Penn this season. After an 11-2 preseason, the Big Red have stumbled. Cornell mustered its only Ivy victory this season against winless Dartmouth and is unlikely to shed its current funk today against the second-place Tigers, who will be fine-tuning for their match against Columbia tomorrow. "We can't take Cornell lightly," Pringle said. "They can play with anyone in the league." That especially applies to Cornell junior Mike Halperin. A second team All-Ivy singles and doubles player last season, Halperin has defeated every Ivy opponent he has faced this season. His victories include three-set thrillers against Columbia's Zaman and last week against Brown's freshman phenom Justin Natale. The Quakers will need to play a nearly flawless match to down Columbia today. Sophomore Fanda Stejskal is coming off a win over Harvard's John Doran, one of the top players in the league, and will need to at least retain that form against Zaman and Halperin. The Quakers will be without the services of Joey Zupan this weekend. Zupan re-injured his roator cuff last weekend and will be replaced by senior Brett Meringoff. Penn will be attempting to recover steam after a 6-1 loss to Harvard that broke the team's three-match winning streak. No matter the result this weekend, the Quakers have shown great improvement over last year's results. A strong showing this weekend could give them a finish as the third- or fourth-place team in the Ivy League.
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