With the final two matches entering the third set, the Penn men's tennis team found itself down 3-2 to last year's Ivy League champion Harvard Crimson.
Freshman Joseph Lok, playing at No. 6 singles, had lost his first set 6-2, but battled back to even the score with a 6-4 second set victory. Willed by a boisterous crowd, Lok broke Gideon Valkin to tie him 4-4 in the third set, but dropped the next two games -- resulting in a 6-4 third set loss.
Harvard, which was ranked as high as 15th this season, won the match, 4-3, but did not leave Philadelphia before facing a real threat. On Saturday, the Quakers recovered from their near-upset loss with a strong 5-2 victory against overmatched Dartmouth, snapping a three-game Ivy League skid.
Penn (13-6, 1-3 Ivy) began the match against Harvard (11-10, 3-1) by dropping the doubles point, which turned out to be the difference in the match. The Quakers lost all three doubles matches with their top team of Mikhail Bekker and David Lynn falling to Jonathan Chu and Jordan Bohnen, 8-3.
Tas Tobias and Anthony Pu lost by the same margin at No. 2 against Harvard's Brandon Chiu and Ashwin Kumar. At No. 3, Penn's Brandon O'Gara and Todd Lecher were able to play a tighter match, but were still defeated, 8-6.
Chu quickly displaced Bekker -- 6-1, 6-3 -- at No. 1 singles. However, at No. 4, Lecher was able to dominate and pick up a 6-2, 6-2 win over Chiu. In the third position, Penn's Tobias faced an unfavorable fate against Daniel Nguyen as he fell in straight sets.
Down 3-1 to the Crimson, the Quakers rallied in front of a raucous Spring Fling-induced crowd more suited for the Palestra. Penn players responded to the fans' "Let's Go Quakers" chants and the wild antics.
"It was great to have people come out and support us," Lecher said. "It definitely gave everybody on the team a jolt. It was awesome."
After dropping the second set at No. 2, Lynn recovered for a 6-0, 2-6, 6-2 victory to put the Quakers within a match of tying Harvard. But Lok's comeback was thwarted and, with the match already secured, Shantanu Dhaka retired against Fairbanks.
Penn opened Saturday's bout with Dartmouth (6-10, 0-4) by winning two of three doubles matches to pick up the doubles point. At No. 1, Lynn and Bekker defeated Dartmouth's David Webb and Andres Reyes, 8-2. Tobias and Pu lost for a second time at No. 2 doubles. However, O'Gara and Lecher edged out a 9-8 (8) tiebreaker win over the Big Green's Mark Brodie and Jeffrey Schechtman to clinch the doubles point.
The Quakers went on to win four of six singles matches.
Bekker, at No. 1, rebounded to win 6-3, 6-3 over Webb, and Tobias similarly bounced back with 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 victory over Brodie. At No. 6, Lok defeated Priya Sahu 7-5, 6-4.
Lecher picked up his third victory of the weekend as he easily dropped Schechtman, 6-3, 6-2.
"I tried to be solid out there," Lecher said. "We played well as a team. We had a tough loss, those are hard to swallow, but as a team we played tough."
The Red & Blue, 9-1 at home, will close out its home schedule with a 2 p.m. match against Cornell on Friday.
