Quakers roll over Army, on to Ivies

For freshman Jonathan Boym, the Penn men's tennis team's 6-1 victory over Army yesterday -- its ninth straight win -- was nothing more than a cap to a successful preseason.

"The real season starts this Friday," he said, referring to the Quakers' Ivy League opener against Princeton. Penn's non-league success "is in the past."

"It's going to be a dogfight," Boym added. "Every match, every point is going to count."

Boym, who won his No. 2 singles match 6-0, 6-3 and partnered with junior Mikhail Bekker to win his doubles match 8-2, is looking forward to the level of competition that Ivy play will consistently offer.

Penn (12-4) is understandably confident of its chances in the Ivy League, even though league play has been troublesome for the Quakers in the past. Head coach Mark Riley, in his sixth season as Penn's head coach, has recorded losing records in league play every year since he took over. He says he fully expects that to change this year.

"This is the best team I've had since I've been here," Riley added. "We're working hard in practice, and even the guys who aren't playing matches are helping other guys get better."

Against Army (6-12), the team exemplified the attitude Riley has been stressing all year -- doing the little things right. Freshman Justin Fox ran hard for balls and fought his way to a three-set victory even after the Quakers had the match wrapped up, and the doubles teams started out strong and dominated the Black Knights, dropping just five games. The Quakers came within one singles match of a shutout, as sophomore Jason Pinsky lost his No. 1 match 6-4, 6-4 to John Houghton.

The team's closeness off the court appears to be positively impacting its performance on it. Fox says his teammates call one another for workouts at Pottruck on top of the increase in conditioning Riley already has the team doing.

"We're doing early morning runs and a lot of sprinting before and after matches," Fox said. "We'll be on the treadmills and ellipticals and motivate each other by focusing on Princeton."

Boym agreed, "If I work hard, then that will motivate my teammate to work hard, who will motivate someone else. All 14 guys will work hard."

Fox, who won his No. 4 singles match 6-2, 2-6, 10-8 and teamed with sophomore Brandon O'Gara to win his doubles match 8-2, expects Ivy play to be very much like some of the competition Penn has already seen.

"We've played some great matches this year," Fox said. "It'll be a lot like playing South Carolina or Florida or the ECACs."

As strange as it seems, it isn't unusual for the Quakers to view their first 16 matches as merely preparation for the final seven.

"We're at the part of the season we want to be," Riley said. "We've been working toward this since the fall.

"More than any other league I've coached in, we are evaluated here by how we do against our peers."

Riley has also coached at Kansas and Drake.

Penn is the highest-ranked Ivy team, at 45th in the nation. But the Quakers aren't taking on the mentality of favorites. If anything, they are simply planning on continuing their match-by-match approach.

"We never thought about winning nine matches in a row," Riley said. "If we just do the little things properly, it should be enough -- it will be enough."

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