By RICKY KATZ
Staff Writer
katz@dailypennsylvanian.com
After being named Ivy League Rookie of the Year as a freshman and first team All-Ivy as a sophomore, Jonathan Boym entered his junior season on the men's tennis team with high expectations.
But after being sidelined for most of the year with a shoulder injury, he was forced to shift his focus to his upcoming senior campaign.
"Jonathan took the beginning of the fall off to rehab his shoulder," coach Nik DeVore said. "By the end of the semester, he was playing at full strength and looked ready to go."
The senior captain will look to improve on his 50-14 career record when the men's tennis team kicks off its season against Drexel on Saturday.
In his second year as coach, DeVore is optimistic about the outlook for this season after being impressed with his squad's play in the fall matches.
"We had a lot of good individual performances in the fall," DeVore said. "We lost a few key guys from last season, but we're still looking pretty good this season."
Although he is out five players from last season, including top singles player Jason Pinsky, DeVore is optimistic in spite of the team's inconsistency.
"We lost three of our top four from last season in Jason Pinsky, Joe Lok and Eric Riley," DeVore said. "We also lost Brandon O'Gara, who was arguably our best doubles player."
DeVore will rely on three talented newcomers to reinvigorate his team. The most experienced of the trio, Hicham Laalej, is a junior transfer from Stetson who will play either first or second singles for Penn this season and is currently ranked No. 105 in Division I.
"It will be between Hicham and . Boym for No. 1 singles this season," DeVore said. "Hicham was a huge pick-up for us."
The Red and Blue added two solid freshman recruits in Phil Law of Alberta, Canada and Jason Lin of Irvine, Calif. Law went 13-4 in the fall and teamed up with Laalej to make the doubles quarterfinals of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Eastern Regional. The pair defeated Penn State's No. 1 doubles team in the process. Lin went 10-4 in the fall and beat the No. 1 player from Cornell.
"We have three solid newcomers," DeVore said. "One of my goals is to have them gel as a team with the returners."
One of Penn's returning starters, junior Adam Schwartz, was a staple in the singles lineup last season and went 10-4 this fall. He also made the round of 16 in the ITA Eastern Regional.
Juniors Alex Vasin and Justen Roth are also expected to step up this season after posting strong fall records, 10-4 and 5-3, respectively. The rest of the roster, which includes junior Jeffrey Karsh and sophomores Zach Gorn and Dmitry Bury, is pretty balanced.
"Everyone on our 10-man roster has a real shot of getting in there at some point," DeVore said. "The No. 10 player is capable of beating No. 6."
While the turnover of players is drastic, one consistent strength for the Quakers is a strong home court advantage.
"The Levy Pavilion is a hard place to play for visiting teams," DeVore said. "When local teams like Drexel and Temple come, the matches are intense."
However, DeVore noted that his team can sometimes underestimate its opponent. Last season, the Quakers downplayed Drexel's talent and ended up losing the doubles point. Although the Quakers still won the match, they should have put it away with ease.
Penn has two tough road trips on their schedule this season. The first is a trip to Florida to play Miami and Florida Atlantic the weekend of Feb. 7. The second is to California over spring break, where the Quakers will play UC Irvine and UC Santa Barbara.
With the additions of Laalej, Law and Lin, the Quakers have the tools to compete in the Ivy League this season and improve upon last year's fourth-place finish. But the revamped roster also presents DeVore with the challenge of finding the right lineup.
"I'm very excited to see what happens this season," he said. "The most important thing for us is to figure out our lineup in time for the Ivy League season."
