M. Tennis adds two more league losses

With so much parity in the Ivy League, someone has to be at the losing end. Unfortunately for the Penn men's tennis team, the Quakers have come up just short all too many times this spring. The Red and Blue hoped to turn their misfortune around this weekend against Cornell and Columbia but could not come up with a win in either attempts. After losing by a heartbreaking, 4-3 score to the Big Red on Friday, Penn succumbed to the Lions, 6-1, on Sunday. Going into the Cornell match, both the Quakers and the Big Red knew that the final score would be close. But no one could have known just how close. After dropping all three doubles matches, Penn and Cornell appeared evenly matched in singles. Penn junior Brian Barki, coming off a three-match winning streak, fell early at the No. 2 position. But the Quakers rebounded, as No. 1 Fanda Stejskal defeated Cornell's Mike Halperin, 7-5, 6-3. Stejskal's win over Halperin, who is ranked No.1 in the Northeast and went undefeated in Ivy League matches last spring, boosted team morale and brought Penn within striking distance of the Big Red. With the Quakers behind by just one point and the remaining four singles matches all in third sets, the victory was up for grabs. At the No. 4 position, Penn senior co-captain Rob Pringle was locked in a tight battle with Cornell's Zach Gallin. Gallin fought back from two match points down to defeat Pringle, 3-6, 6-1, 7-5, in what Penn coach Mark Riley called"the pivotal match." The Quakers, however, were still very much in the match -- provided they swept the last three contests. It wasn't to be. The very next result did the Quakers in, as Penn No. 6 Andy Kolker's effort fell short. The sophomore fought back from a set down to even the match but did not have enough firepower left to pull out the victory. So, while Penn sophomore Ryan Harwood and senior co-captain Eric Sobotka, playing at No. 3 and No. 5 respectively, won their matches, Cornell had already secured the win. "Coach told us before the match that the score would be 4-3," Barki said. "Unfortunately, it didn't turn out in our favor." After a disappointing loss that was literally decided by a few points, the Quakers had to regroup before taking on the Lions later that weekend. Because the match was played on Columbia's home courts, the Red and Blue had to weather conditions unlike those at any other Ivy League school. "The match was indoor, on clay," Stejskal said. "And it was in the bubble, so there were really humid, tough conditions." The Lions dominated play, winning all three doubles matches and sweeping four of the six singles matches in straight sets. At No. 5 singles, Sobotka extended his opponent to three sets before falling in a third-set tie-breaker. The lone win for the Quakers came from Harwood. Playing at the No. 2 position, Harwood dispatched Columbia's Akram Zaman, 6-4, 6-3. The Quakers, who now stand at 1-5 in Ivy League play, have just one more chance to redeem themselves this season. They travel to Princeton next Saturday.

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