M. Tennis | Penn looks to float over UC-Riverside

California dreaming isn't over yet.

Ten days after completing its West Coast spring trip, the Penn men's tennis team will take on California-Riverside at Lott courts today in the final match of the non-conference schedule.

The Quakers are happy to return to Philadelphia and hope that home-court advantage will give them an edge over their West Coast foes.

"Just like when we had a little trouble adjusting when we first got to California, hopefully they will have a little bit of trouble playing on our courts," coach Nik DeVore said. "But usually going from outside to in is not as big of an adjustment."

Although the Quakers are heavily favored based on team records, statistics and experience, DeVore, who faced UC-Riverside annually during his time at Loyola Marymount, stressed that the Highlanders are no push over.

"It's going to be like an Ivy match, which is one of the reasons we were happy to schedule the match," DeVore said. "They are a very classy team and are also really intense, so we will have to step up right from the get-go. . We expect to win the match, but we expect to fight too."

DeVore also emphasized that the Quakers cannot afford to look past UC-Riverside and solely focus on Saturday's matchup with Princeton, as every match counts.

"We can't look past anybody and think of any match as a warm-up," DeVore said.

The Highlanders have a very young program composed of four freshmen and five sophomores. The Quakers are hoping that their upperclassmen as well as promising freshmen Phil Law and Jason Lin will be able to take advantage of their opponent's potential weakness.

DeVore is also excited to watch the No. 1 singles matchup of UC-Riverside's freshman star Felix Macherez and Penn's Hicham Laalej, but ultimately has confidence that Laalej will emerge victorious.

"I favor Hicham over any other team's number one if Hicham is feeling good about himself and playing well," DeVore said. "He gained some confidence down in California. . I think he is finding his game at the right time of the year."

In regards to the numerous injuries that have bothered the Quakers this season, DeVore says that he expects "all ten players to practice," but star senior captain and No. 2 singles player Jonathan Boym will be a game-time decision as he is trying to recover from a lingering shoulder injury.

DeVore stated that the Quakers will take a very cautious approach with their captain as he is an integral part of their ability to win.

"UC-Riverside is a very important match, but . the most important part of the season is the Ivy schedule, so our goal is to have him healthy for those matches," he said. "If he is not 100% then he may not play because we want to make sure that he is ready for Princeton."