Joseph Lok won his first ever Ivy League tennis match by defeating Saurabh Kohli of Brown on Saturday. Despite the stellar performance by the freshman, Penn lost two challenging matches to Yale and Brown this weekend.
Lok was filling in for the injured Justin Lavner. It is unknown when Lavner will be ready to play again. Coach Mark Riley was not discouraged, noting "we are deep enough, we expect to win no matter who we put out there."
Penn lost to Yale, 4-3, in New Haven, Conn., on Friday. The team was unable to rebound in Providence on Saturday against a challenging Brown squad. Penn again lost, 4-3.
Penn (13-5, 1-2 Ivy) won the doubles point at Yale (5-10, 1-1). However, uncharacteristically, all four seniors lost their singles matches, resulting in the loss. At Brown (18-5, 2-0), the Quakers were unable to eke out the doubles point and it cost them as they split the singles matches.
One of the lone bright spots on the weekend was the play of Mikhail Bekker who won three of his four matches.
Riley was pleased with the level of competition produced by his team, but was still disappointed by the result.
"I'm proud of the guys, how they played, how they competed to the end," Riley said.
The Quakers will host Harvard, last year's Ivy League champions, next Friday at 2 p.m.
