The Penn men's tennis team is coming off of a weekend sweep where it lost only one match out of 14.
Lately, coach Mark Riley has been doing jumping jacks as he sees his young team developing. Penn's No. 1 singles player and co-captain -- who happen to be doubles partners -- are lauding themselves for playing as well as they ever have. Things could not be better, right?
Not so fast.
After obliterating Richmond, 6-1, last saturday afternoon and smoking St. Joseph's, 7-0, that night, the Quakers (5-1) travel to Virginia, where they will face off with nationally-ranked William and Mary before heading over to the coast to square off against Old Dominion.
In the Quakers' first big challenge this month -- Penn traveled to Michigan to face Western Michigan and then the No. 45 Wolverines -- Penn came away with mixed results.
"Our first big test was that road weekend [in Michigan]," Riley said. "I think we give ourselves a B for the Western Michigan game [a 4-3 win], but we flunked the test against Michigan [a 7-0 loss].
"We get to play a team that's equivalent, or better than, Michigan, in William and Mary, and we'll see where we fall."
The Tribe (9-3), ranked No. 51 nationally after going 3-1 against ranked opponents this year, will face Penn in the eighth match of a 10-match homestand. William and Mary is currently 7-1 at McCormack-Nagelsen Tennis Center and has defeated three straight opponents.
Leading the way for the surging Tribe are No. 1 Sean Kelleher, who has 22 wins on the year, and Geoffrey Russell, who has 20.
Luckily for Penn, their top players are also at the top of their game right now. No. 1 Fanda Stejskal is coming off of a dominant performance last weekend, and is teaming up with No. 3 Ryan Harwood in playing their best doubles of the year.
Penn junior Andy Kolker was the only team member to play two singles matches in the doubleheader last weekend, and rolled in both.
On Sunday at noon, the Red and Blue will face what should be a less challenging Old Dominion (3-3).
While the Monarchs do not possess quite the same arsenal of talent as William and Mary, and will be also playing only their second home match of the year, they cannot be overlooked.
Their home defeat came in a hard fought loss to No. 43 Wake Forest.
To counter the Monarchs, Riley is expecting a complete team effort in the second half of the weekend -- far better than the one the Quakers produced in the whitewash against the Wolverines.
"I think part of the reason we lost to Michigan was that the freshmen didn't realize how much energy it takes to play top teams back to back," Riley said.
The Quakers will find out soon enough how they have matured since that Michigan debacle, and in turn, how they measure up to some of the top teams in the country.
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