The Penn men's tennis team finished fifth the hard way.
In this past week's Eastern College Athletic Conference Tennis Championships Penn was only able to come away with one doubles win in nine tries. Because of the best-of-three format for doubles play in collegiate competition, Penn did not get a doubles point in the tournament.
However, the ninth-seeded Quakers were able to overcome this for the most part and leave the tournament tied with Yale for a fifth-place finish. They defeated Dartmouth, 4-3, in the opening round, fell to top seed Harvard, 7-0, in the quarterfinals and topped fourth-seeded Princeton, 5-2, in the consolation round.
Freshman Mikhail Bekker felt that the Quakers' performance was good overall, but that his own performance was just "average." Bekker won his singles match against Dave Webb of Dartmouth on Friday, 6-1, 6-1. However, he lost both of his other singles matches and all three of his doubles matches with junior Anthony Pu.
Bekker's struggles in doubles exemplified the woes of the Red and Blue at the National Tennis Center in New York -- the lone victory went to Jimmy Fairbanks and Justin Lavner over Princeton, 8-5.
"Doubles is a thing we have to work on," Bekker said.
Junior Craig Rubin, who won two of his three singles matches, did not know why the doubles units struggled, and thought that perhaps the teams will be reshuffled in order to produce better chemistry and more favorable results.
Bekker took the Quakers' victory over Princeton as a positive from the weekend. It was the first win over the Tigers in the just over three-year career of head coach Mark Riley.
"Everyone stepped up... and gelled as a team... especially against Princeton," Rubin added.
Bekker felt that the tournament helped prepare him for the rest of the season.
The tournament "encouraged our teammates to work hard... and beat very good teams," he said. "It only motivates us."
Rubin was also particularly impressed with the Quakers' victories because they came over Ivy League rivals Dartmouth and Princeton.
"Any match you win [against the Ivies] is a great feat," Rubin said. "It's got to give the team some confidence."
But he also warned against complacency, stressing that the Red and Blue will need a great effort in order to win their upcoming matches.
The Quakers next play in two weeks, at the ITA Eastern Regionals at Cornell, Oct. 17-21.
