M. Tennis | Quakers come close, but no cigar

Penn men's tennis senior captain Jonathan Boym may be physically rusty, but his veteran perspective remains sharp.

"Obviously I'm extremely distraught that I couldn't close that match out . but I think the test of a true athlete or a true competitor is how well you bounce back the next time," Penn's No. 2 singles player said when asked about his inability to prevail in a three-set match against Princeton Saturday.

In the Quakers' 4-3 loss to the Tigers, fellow top players - junior No. 1 Hicham Laalej and freshman No. 4 Phil Law -- also suffered Boym's fate.

Penn (8-7, 0-1 Ivy) will now attempt to bounce back in today's home match against Army (5-11), despite the disheartening loss in their first taste of Ivy League play over the weekend.

Saturday's defeat at the hands of the Tigers (9-6, 1-0) saw the Quakers solve their recurring problem of winning the doubles point, but a new difficulty - their inability to pull out the close singles matches - arose.

While freshman Jason Lin and junior Adam Schwartz were bright spots - capturing easy two-set victories at the No. 3 and 6 spots, respectively - Boym is confident that the close matches the Quakers dropped throughout the rest of the lineup were merely cases of the ball not bouncing their way.

"When a match is that close," the captain explained, "I would say maybe three or four points decide the match, [but] that's the game of tennis."

In the Ivy League, "everyone wants it [and] no one's just going to give it to you," Boym added. "Hopefully next week if we run into the same situations . we're going to be the guys that come out victorious."

Having Boym back in the lineup - as the Quakers did Saturday for the first time in six matches - will certainly help. The senior reported no pain before or after the match and claims he is almost 100 percent healthy.

"Now that [the pain's] gone, it's just [about] me getting match tough for the rest of our Ivy League matches," Boym said.

A non-league contest against Army could be just what the Quakers need to boost their confidence, Boym explained.

"Leading up to the Ivy League season, we've been playing practice matches anyway," he said. "I think it's even better that instead of playing our teammates that we play every single day, we're playing another team, and we have to play in a situation where there's pressure."

Coming off of a 5-2 victory over Lehigh in their Patriot League opener, the Black Knights - like the Quakers - will use the match as a tune-up for the stretch run of league play. Again similar to Penn, Army has a mix of youth and experience, with a player from each class comprising the top four of the lineup, led by senior No. 1 Phil Muhawi.

The match will give the Red and Blue yet another opportunity to get ready for the Ivy season that has been their focus from the start of the year. With six straight conference matches beginning April 3, Boym and his teammates hope to find a recipe for success just in time.

"We took a lot of positive things out of Princeton even though we didn't win," the Marlboro, N.J., native said. "We'll take some more positive things [today] and we'll add that together and it could be a winning experience."

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