M. Tennis crushes first two foes

On Saturday, the freshman-studded Penn men's tennis team aced its way to a solid start to the spring season, as the Quakers steamrolled through Temple and Swarthmore in a pair of 7-0 victories.

The Quakers showed no rust after their three-month lay off, losing just 10 games to Swarthmore and eight games to Temple.

"We were really intense. Everyone came out wanting to win really badly," Penn freshman Anthony Pu said. "It carried us throughout the whole day."

Penn experimented with many different lineups on the weekend. Against Swarthmore, the Red and Blue bumped their freshmen into the lineup, taking two of their top players -- senior Fanda Stejskal and top freshman David Lynn -- out of the rotation.

In the second match, the Quakers played at their usual positions. Penn also played with different doubles combinations to match their opponents' playing styles.

"We looked as good as we have all year," Pu said. "Everyone I saw was playing fine without any weaknesses."

Playing against two weaker opponents, the Quakers worked on more specific parts of their game.

"I worked on getting my first serve in more, moving my opponent around, and picking the right time to choose my shots," senior co-captain Brian Barki said. "We were just looking for the solid wins."

The eight new recruits have much to show this season, especially if they want to improve on last year's seventh place Ivy finish.

"From the fall season, we [the freshmen] now know how everything works," Pu said. "The upperclassmen have helped us, but we've helped them too. We come out ready to play, and it pushes them to play harder."

The upperclassmen think the freshmen are ready to compete.

"We try to help them along the way by encouragement and by example," Barki said. "They don't need to be babied. They know what they're doing out there."

Though tennis is an individual sport, the Quakers have also grown together as a team from the fall season to now.

"We have a good team bond," Pu said. "In the team aspect it helps when you have someone cheering for you."

Penn's youthful talent will be put to the test in next Saturday's matches against Western Michigan and University of Michigan.

"They're both very tough teams. We're going to have to use these two wins and what we worked on during practice and apply them to next weekend's matches," Barki said. "They may be the favorites, but I don't see any reason why we can't win."

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