The intensity with which the Penn men's tennis team has been practicing during the offseason is finally beginning to pay off.
The Quakers opened their 2005 campaign in dominant fashion yesterday afternoon, scoring a7-0 clean sweep over Maryland-Baltimore County. The Red and Blue took the doubles point and won all six singles matches. No singles match even made it to three sets.
While Ivy League play does not begin until April 1, the Quakers are starting down the path toward their objective.
"Our goal this year is to win Ivies, and we came out strong on the first match," senior Anthony Pu said.
Penn began the afternoon with an extremely strong effort in all three doubles matches. Penn's Tas Tobias and Joe Lok defeated James Tyler and Mike Keller, 8-4. Across the Levy Tennis Pavilion, their teammates Brandon O'Gara and Todd Lecher smashed their way to a victory over David Jackson and Irfan Shamasdin, 8-6. Junior Jimmy Fairbanks, in his first of two victories on the day, teamed up with Justin Lavner in an 8-1 pounding of Djan Gusmao and Mehrban Iranshad.
Pu spoke of the team's early success in the doubles, saying that it has been a greater focus in practice than in previous years.
The Quakers top singles seed sophomore Mikhail Bekker said he felt "pretty good" before the match. Bekker suffered a stress fracture in his left foot last October and is currently limiting his play to singles while he works his way back. Despite this handicap, he played pretty well, sweeping both sets 6-0 to defeat James Tyler, the Retrievers' top player.
Sophomore Tas Tobias, a University of Texas transfer student and a new asset to the Quakers squad, recorded his second victory of the day in singles competition. Tobias played a smart match, leading to yet another two-set sweep over Mike Keller.
In other singles action, third seed Justin Lavner defeated Fernando Ferreira, 6-1, 6-2. Senior Todd Lecher defeated Irfan Shamasdin in dominant fashion, 6-0, 6-2.
Jimmy Fairbanks scored his second victory of the day by defeating David Jackson, 6-2, 6-0.
"I feel good. We played welltoday. It was a nice way to get started," Fairbanks said shortly after the first of his twovictories.
Freshman rookie Joe Lok certainly had the key to victory yesterday. Lok defeated Mehrban Iranshad, 6-1, 6-3.
Five Quakers recorded both singles and doubles victories on the day.
Pu credited a great deal of Penn's success to the increased intensity of the team's workouts.
"The level at practice is much higher than it has been in previous years," Pu said.
This solid victory started the Quakers' season off on a good note. However, many challenges still lie ahead.
If all goes well, the Quakers will continue their strong play when they square off against St. John's and Swarthmore on Saturday at home in the Levy Tennis Pavilion.
