Fueled by doubles domination, the Penn men's tennis team topped St. John's, 5-2, in the first match of Saturday afternoon's doubleheader at Levy Pavilion before going on to shut out Swarthmore.
The Quakers earned the doubles point with all three doubles teams handily defeating the outmanned St. John's squad.
Resilient play by Mikhail Bekker and David Lynn at No. 2 doubles led to a hard fought 9-7 win over Claudio Halim and Louis Desmarteaux.
Sophomore transfer Tas Tobias, teamed with freshman Joseph Lok, to make quick work of David Nylen and Boris Chiporukha, 8-5, at No. 1 doubles.
Rounding out the doubles matches, Penn's Brandon O'Gara and Todd Lecher defeated Todd Goldberg and Nick Stocker, 8-5, to extend Penn's perfect doubles record this season.
"The doubles is stepping up and playing hard in each match," coach Mark Riley said.
Bekker, playing both singles and doubles for the first time since suffering a stress fracture in his foot last October, came back from a set down to force a third set tie-breaker in his match at No. 1 singles. Though he fell short in the end, Bekker displayed poise as he denied his fiery opponent Louis Desmarteaux break point after break point during the comeback.
Riley did not think playing two matches affected Bekker.
"He's fine. We're happy with him," Riley said. "He played one of the top players in the region and battled back and lost a breaker in the third."
The Red and Blue dropped the top two singles matches to the Red Storm before rallying.
However, the Quakers' depth paid dividends as the third through sixth seeds all won in straight sets. Lynn, a senior captain led the way with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Chiporukha, while at No. 4, Justin Lavner defeated Aurelio Di Zazzo, 7-6(3), 6-4.
Victory over St. John's was assured when the Red Storm's Morgan Bauer, claiming that a "pain just shot up my back," called for a trainer and retired to Lecher who was leading 3-0 in the first set.
At the sixth spot, Jimmy Fairbanks defeated Claudio Halim, 6-2, 6-4 to close out Penn's win.
Soon afterwards, Penn readied itself for the second half of the doubleheader against Division III Swarthmore.
"Playing matches is a lot better than practicing. The second match gives a chance for some of the others guys playing just as hard as the starters in practice," said Riley, in reference to the only doubleheader of the year.
Penn went on to defeat Swarthmore 7-0 in a match that saw many young Quakers gaining experience.
With its doubleheader sweep, Penn can look forward to next weekend's home matches against Richmond and Saint Bonaventure.
