With their spring break trip to sunny California on the horizon, the men's tennis team only has to endure the frigid Philadelphia air another week and a half.
Of course, the northeastern terrain - or rather, the indoor sanctuary - has served the team well thus far.
After dealing a 6-1 loss to Navy on Sunday, the Quakers (4-4) remained undefeated at home this season. The team hopes to continue the streak against Saint Joseph's (3-3) at 4 p.m. today at Levy Pavilion.
Penn will bring confidence to today's match after its strong performances last weekend and at the ECAC Championships earlier this month, where the Quakers nearly upset Harvard in a tight and hard-fought loss.
St. Joe's fell to the Midshipmen, 7-0, on Feb. 14 - the same Midshipmen that just left Penn's Levy Pavilion with a loss.
But coach Nik DeVore cautioned against not taking the Hawks seriously enough.
"It's a new day," DeVore said. "They're going to come in here with nothing to lose."
Indeed, the Hawks are not to be taken lightly; apart from its loss to Navy, St. Joe's has defeated all of its opponents this month.
The Quakers will have a special eye out for St. Joe's senior Pat Adams after the impression he made when the two teams met last season.
"He's a pretty talented player, and he played a highly competitive match against Jason Pinsky last year," said DeVore, who believes Adams "stands out amongst all the rest of [the St. Joe's] players."
Despite going up against a player as talented as Adams, the Quakers will accept nothing less than a shutout.
"If you win 5-2 but it should be 7-0, you don't really feel that good about yourself, and it doesn't really prepare you for the tougher matches that are coming up," DeVore explained.
Today is Penn's last match before it heads to the West Coast on its spring trip. Accordingly, DeVore sees this as an opportunity to "build some confidence" and "keep the ball rolling" before the Quakers face nationally-ranked opponents like UC Santa Barbara.
Penn will be experimenting with different doubles combinations today and in the weeks leading up to the start of the Ivy League season.
"That's the most important thing: that we have the teams in place that we think are going to do well for us in the Ivy League season," DeVore said.
While he's not overlooking the Hawks, senior Jonathan Boym knows that this match is, in the grand scheme of things, a warm-up.
"This is another match experience towards the Ivy League season," Boym said. "All we really want to do, and our ultimate goal, is to win the Ivy League."
