Prior to Friday afternoon's match at Princeton, senior Todd Lecher had never played in a Penn men's tennis team victory against the archrival Tigers. And Lecher certainly was not going let his Quakers face a fate similar to last year's heartbreaking 4-3 home loss.
Determined to not let his team lose its fourth match in four years to the Tigers, Lecher teamed with freshman Brandon O'Gara against Princeton's Darius Craton and Ted Mabrey at No. 3 doubles.
The doubles point was on the line early as the top two doubles teams split their matches. Playing with poise and resilience, the Lecher-O'Gara duo was able to outlast the Tigers 9-8 (4) to clinch the doubles point and lead the Quakers to a 5-2 victory over Princeton in their first Ivy League contest of the season.
The doubles triumph was only the beginning for Lecher, who faced another close call playing No. 5 singles. After cruising to a 6-3 first set victory, he dropped the closely-contested second set 7-6 before winning the tie-break, 7-5. This was Lecher's 15th win of the dual-meet season.
The No. 1 Penn doubles team of Mikhail Bekker and David Lynn certainly did not have a quiet day as they defeated Princeton's Andrew Lieu and Hans Plukas 8-5. Penn's top two rated players outclassed their singles opponents in equally impressive fashion with Bekker handling Josh Burman 6-3, 7-5. Princeton's Craton gave Lynn a greater challenge at No. 2, but Lynn was able to outlast Craton and pickup a 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 victory.
The whole day was not sheer dominance, as Justin Lavner was not as lucky as his teammates at No. 3 singles. He fell handily to Sratha Saengsuwarn by a 6-1, 6-4 margin.
Penn's Tas Tobias also faced a more worthy opponent as his efforts fell short against Plukas, 6-4, 7-5. Earlier, Tobias and his doubles partner Anthony Pu suffered Penn's only doubles loss, 8-6, to Burman and Saengsuwarn.
Rounding out the singles matches, No. 6 player Jimmy Fairbanks exhibited the Quakers' depth as he beat Shannon Morales 6-1, 7-6 (5).
Penn improved to 1-0 in the Ivy League and 13-3 overall with the victory. With six matches remaining, the Quakers have already matched last year's Ivy win total and are only one win away from equaling their total number of wins from last season.
The Red & Blue travels next weekend to Yale and Brown to play two pivotal conference matches, before facing last year's Ivy League champion, Harvard, at home on April 15.
