M. Tennis fights back to beat Old Dominion

The Penn men's tennis team hasn't been doing a lot of losing lately. So when the Quakers opened their match against Old Dominion Saturday by losing the doubles point, it was more than enough to give the team the wakeup call it needed to eventually beat the Monarchs 5-2.

But for the first time in five matches, the Quakers (10-4) dropped two of the three doubles matches to go down 1-0 before the singles matches started. In the locker room at the break, head coach Mark Riley reminded his team to stay focused by referring to, of all things, basketball.

"They're all enjoying the basketball, but it shows that anyone can lose," said Riley, referring to Penn's near-upset of heavily favored Texas in the NCAA Tournament Friday. "If a 15-seed can play a 2-seed like that -- and I think our team did a great job against Texas -- I think we should learn from that.

"You can't expect people to give things away."

The Quakers must have responded to the wakeup call, as they came out firing on all cylinders in singles play.

Sophomore Jason Pinsky, playing in his usual No. 1 spot, faced freshman Harel Srugo, the No. 36-ranked player in the nation. After taking a contested first set 6-3, Pinsky found himself locked into a match against someone who played a lot like himself: big serve, big forehand and a willingness to go for winners from anywhere on the court.

Leading 6-5 and up a break in the second set, Pinsky called a ball that appeared to land several inches past the baseline long. Srugo disagreed and protested to the line judge, who overruled Pinsky's call. Although both players had been overruled on separate occasions during the match, this call appeared to unnerve Penn's top singles player, who proceeded to lose the game, sending the set into a tiebreaker.

But Pinsky prevailed in the extra session to win in straight sets, 6-3, 7-6 (5). Pinsky also partnered with sophomore Joseph Lok to win Penn's lone doubles match 8-5.

"Everyone realized we didn't do our best job in doubles," Pinsky said. "We knew we shouldn't have lost. We just didn't have enough intensity."

Junior Mikhail Bekker, who also won his singles match in straight sets by beating junior Henrique Cancado 6-1, 7-6, agreed.

"We can't just walk in and expect to win," Bekker said.

It is easy to see why the Quakers -- winners of seven straight matches, with the only close match being a 4-3 victory over Central Florida -- may have begun to expect the wins to come easy.

But Riley warned the team against complacency and stressed the importance of continuing to build toward the Ivy League season. The team responded with some of its finest singles play all year.

Old Dominion's "one-two-three singles players were all nationally ranked at one point in the year," Riley said. "For our one-two-three to beat them says something about our team."

With just two more matches remaining on the schedule before Ivy League play begins, the team is increasing its conditioning and focusing on taking on each match with the same level of intensity.

"It was good for us to get that taste of defeat in our mouths because we haven't had that in awhile," Pinsky said. "We have a target on our back now, and we've got to be ready. Today was a perfect example: We came out flat in doubles and lost. If we come out flat in singles, we'll lose."

The Red and Blue will travel to Annapolis, Md., Wednesday to take on Navy in its final road match before Ivy League play begins.

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