The Penn men's tennis team came into the school year as the defending two-time co-Ivy League champions. But the Ancient Eight title isn't the only one they'll try to defend.
The Quakers head into the ECAC Championships this weekend in Flushing Meadows, N.Y. as the two-time defending champions, though you wouldn't know it from the seedings. Penn is seeded fifth out of sixteen teams, with Penn State grabbing the top spot.
Three Ivy League teams are seeded ahead of the Quakers, including Columbia- - the team Penn shared its Ivy title with last year - as well as Princeton and Harvard, whom Penn finished ahead of last year.
The seed "is a bit disappointing because we won the last two ECAC championships," first-year coach Nik DeVore said. "But they take everything into consideration on that, and there are some good recruiting classes."
Still, the seed is surprising considering Penn's roster from last year's championship squad has returned, including its top two singles players Jason Pinsky and Jonathan Boym. The only key talent missing from the 06-07 roster is Mikhail Bekker, who graduated.
The Quakers will face more than a low seed, however, as they set out to defend the title; they'll have to overcome some injuries. Boym sat out last week's Princeton Invitational, and sophomore Adam Schwartz sprained his ankle at the Virginia Invitational two weeks ago.
DeVore said, however, that the banged-up players will fight through their injuries and play because "this is the biggest tournament of the fall."
Penn starts off its title defense today against 12-seed Boston College.
"On paper that's a match we should win, but paper's a dangerous thing," DeVore said. "We better be ready for that because they have nothing to lose playing against the defending champions."
Each team in the tournament will play a guaranteed three matches, with the winners and losers breaking off into separate brackets. The two teams that emerge without a loss will play in the championship match Monday.
In order to be one of those two teams, the Quakers will have to play better than they have so far this year against Ivy competition. The results have been mixed, at best.
Junior Justin Fox defeated Columbia's top player, Bogdan Borta, last week at the Princeton Invitational, but went on to lose to Yale's Michael Caldwell. Fox and partner Brandon O'Gara lost a tight doubles match to Columbia pair Borta and Mark Clemente.
Though Fox's and O'Gara's performance against the Ivy League's top players is encouraging, Penn will need Pinsky and Boym at the top of their games to have a shot at the three-peat.
