Not everyone who goes away over spring break has the greatest time. The Penn men's tennis team can attest to this, as the team went 1-2 on its trips to Rice and Lamar universities in Texas and Army in West Point, N.Y.
The Quakers traveled without their regular No. 2 -- sophomore David Lynn -- as he did not make the trip for personal reasons.
Penn (7-4) started its road trip against a formidable foe in No. 34 Rice. The Owls (11-2) feature the top-ranked doubles tandem in the country in English brothers Richard and William Barker.
On March 9, Penn only saw William in action. However, the Owls still went on to shut out the Quakers, 7-0, in impressive fashion.
Rice was dominant in the match, as Rice did not drop a match on the day, nor a set in singles play.
"Rice is a very talented team, and they just outmatched us," Penn senior co-captain Andy Kolker said. "We put up a good fight at some positions, but overall, they were too tough."
In doubles play, Rice set the tone with commanding performances. Freshmen Konstantin Haerle and Robert Seale topped Penn's top pair in senior Ryan Harwood and sophomore Anthony Pu, 8-2.
Rice sophomore Takehiko Morita and Barker combined for an impressive 8-0 win over Penn's team of sophomore Justin Lavner and freshman Jimmy Fairbanks.
The Quakers' most valiant effort came from sophomore Craig Rubin at fifth-seeded singles, as he fell, 7-5, 7-5, to Rice's Vuk Rajevac. In the other singles matches, Penn managed to win more than three games in a set only two other times on the day.
Two days after the loss to Rice, Penn headed across the Lone Star State to face off with Lamar.
The Quakers found themselves on the other side of a shutout this time around, as Penn topped the Cardinals (4-7), 7-0.
The Red and Blue performed a clean nine-match sweep, winning all three doubles matches and all six singles matches.
Penn junior Alex Fritz provided a solid performance at No. 2 singles. The Austrian native topped Lamar senior and Yugoslavian Nebojsa Murisic, 6-1, 6-0.
"My singles was the fastest and probably the best I have played so far since I have been at Penn," Fritz said. "I was done when everybody else was in the first set."
Penn's final stop of the roadtrip came against Army at West Point March 13. The Quakers went without Lynn and Harwood for this match. Harwood was not in attendance due to a prior commitment.
"Going into Army, we knew that we wouldn't have our two top players," Pu said. "So we knew the match would really test us."
The Quakers took an early lead after they secured the doubles point, but were unable to hold on, as the Black Knights (7-3) rallied to garner a 5-2 victory.
"Overall, the point of these spring break matches is to prepare us for the Ivy season," Kolker said. "And I think we all learned a lot and improved from our experiences on the road against quality opponents."
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