Quakers pull out win over Mids

A risky move almost turned into disaster yesterday for the Penn men's tennis team.

Playing without sophomores Jason Pinsky and Joseph Lok, the Quakers lost the doubles point for the second straight match but managed to come away with a 4-3 win over Navy at Annapolis, Md.

Head coach Mark Riley decided to play some lesser-used players against the Midshipmen, such as juniors Aubry Wand and John Stetson.

"Not all the guys who played today will be able to play once the Ivies start," Riley said. "They deserve a chance to compete."

Riley has stressed all year that the performance of the team shouldn't drop off even as players toward the bottom of the depth chart take the court.

"I took a risk, and it paid off because we won," he said.

Riley added that the team was better off in the long run having used Wand in the sixth singles spot and Stetson at second doubles yesterday because of the experience the juniors gained. Wand lost his singles match 7-6 (10), 7-6 (10), while Stetson partnered with freshman Jonathan Boym to win his doubles match 8-6.

"If I have to play Wand in singles because someone gets hurt, he's better off because he played a competitive match," Riley said. "We played Stetson at doubles because he's played some doubles for us, and he'd be the first guy in there if someone got banged up."

For a while, it looked like the Quakers' winning streak was in danger of being broken at seven matches. Already down 1-0 with the doubles loss and with junior Mikhail Bekker struggling at first singles, the team desperately needed the rest of its singles players to come through.

Boym, freshman Justin Fox and senior Jimmy Fairbanks responded with straight-set victories. The three combined to drop just nine games. Bekker eventually found his stroke and closed out his match 5-7, 7-5, 6-0 to clinch the match for the Quakers.

"We dominated them in three of the matches," Riley said. "Bekker was off but ended up winning."

In the team's last match against Old Dominion, Riley said the doubles teams came out flat and even placed some of the blame on himself, saying it was his job to get his players ready to compete. Against Navy, the doubles teams played hard but ended up catching a few bad breaks that ultimately cost them the point.

"We happened to get a little unlucky in the doubles, which was tough, but it might be better to be a little unlucky today," Riley said. "Things always even out so if we can get some breaks going our way in the Ivies, that'd be nice."

With the win, the Quakers extend their winning streak to eight and come one match closer to seeing how they stack up against the rest of the Ivy League. The team's final match before the Ivy season is against Army on Monday.

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