M. Tennis closes out long homestand

They say all good things must come to an end and that's what will happen to the Penn men's tennis team's lengthy homestand after their match with Rutgers tomorrow. The Quakers have yet to hit the road this season and are 5-2 while playing in the friendly confines of the Levy Tennis Pavilion. After the match with Rutgers, Penn will embark on a spring break roadtrip to Texas to take on Rice and Lamar. The Quakers will also visit Army over the break before hosting Navy on March 26. "Of course, you have to protect your home court," Penn sophomore Justin Lavner said. "You have to go out strong and when you are on the road you need that confidence. So with a win at the end, we should hopefully build that confidence to go on and do very well on our roadtrip." Rutgers (2-2) is riding a two match winning streak coming into this weekend's play. They have rebounded to post consecutive wins over Navy and Georgetown after dropping their first two matches to Brown and Cornell. The Scarlet Knights hope to improve their winning percentage against Ivy League opponents as they visit Yale on Friday afternoon before heading to Philadelphia to square off with the Quakers. Penn is coming off a doubleheader sweep of St. Bonaventure and Saint Joseph's and they are looking forward to maintaining their momentum. "We are definitely looking forward to playing this match," Penn junior Alex Fritz. "Everybody was playing well last week and we're looking to keep that up." "Rutgers is going to be a level above where we were last week." Penn coach Mark Riley said. "They're a pretty deep, pretty complete team, and they're good from one through six in the line-up." The Quakers are optimistic about their chances tomorrow and are confident in their doubles play -- an aspect of Penn's game that Riley has been harping on in practice. "We turned up the doubles a little bit," sophomore Todd Lecher said. "I think that's the key though, our doubles is definitely getting better. We're heading into the Ivy season and everyone's pretty experienced now." Sophomore Anthony Pu echoed Lecher's thoughts on the doubles point. "I feel our doubles is pretty confident right now," Pu said. "We all played really well last weekend. It's really important to pick up that first point in doubles, and I think we've been doing a good job of that in the last couple of matches." The Quakers hope that their dedication to improving their doubles play will help them end their eight-match homestand in winning fashion. "Having that doubles point in the beginning is key because it's the difference between having to win three out of six matches instead of four out of six," Pu said. "It's just a huge difference. It's only one match, but it's a huge difference, especially when you are playing such a high caliber team."

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