The men's tennis team continued its pattern of decisive wins yesterday at Jadwin. After defeating St. John's and Navy last weekend — both by 6-1 scores — the Tigers coasted to a 5-2 win over Temple, building confidence as they head into Ivy League competition Saturday against Penn.
"The matches that we won in singles, we won handily," senior Scott Borenstein said. "The score was 5-2, but it wasn't really that close."
The first doubles team of Borenstein and senior Ahn-Ahn Liu got things rolling. Princeton (9-4) fought off a strong effort by the Owls and held serve during a long first game. They broke Temple's serve immediately after that and continued on to an 8-1 win — showing why they are the No. 53-ranked doubles team in the country.
"It's good when you can get an early break," Borenstein said. "You can relax then and concentrate on holding serve."
Stepping up
The third doubles combination of junior John Portlock and sophomore Darren Joe held off its Temple opponents, 8-5, to give Princeton the doubles point.
Sandwiched between two tough three set losses at No. 1 and No. 3 singles, Liu had an easy 6-3, 6-0 victory at No. 2. Portlock and Joe both also cruised to easy victories. Sophomore Nick Benjamin recorded the win at No. 4 singles by holding off his opponent until he was forced to retire — with Benjamin ahead 6-3, 4-3.
"I started out well but I let up a couple times each set," Benjamin said. "He got tired fast and I was losing concentration. I'm glad he retired."
Junior Kyle Kliegerman lost at the No. 1 position — 7-6, 2-6, 7-6 — coming up short in two different tiebreakers. Freshman Trevor Smith, on the other hand, won the tiebreaker in the second set of his match, but lost the first and third sets for a tough 6-4, 6-7, 6-2 loss.
"They were both disappointed," head coach David Benjamin said. "They both could have won."
With only eight matches left in the season — seven of which are against Ivy competitors — the Tigers feel ready to perform. They'll get their first chance Saturday against Penn, hopefully with sophomore Judson Williams recovered from illness and back in the starting lineup.
Tough matchup
"Penn will be tough," Benjamin said. "It's our first league match so it's important that we play well."
Despite currently having the highest ITA ranking of any Ivy school (61), coach Benjamin is not putting too much weight on numbers.
"[The other teams] may beat a tough team by then," coach Benjamin said, "and that would lift their ranking."
Princeton's most formidable opponents should be Columbia, Harvard and Brown, though the team — whose first competition came in early fall — is careful not to look past any opponent.
"We wait a long time to play [the Ivy teams]," coach Benjamin said. "And then the league season is only three weeks."
The team feels confident that if it can ward off injuries and play its best, it has a good chance of winning the rest of its matches.
"You have to be mentally prepared for a tough match every time," Borenstein said. "This is the main part of our season, it's what we work for. If we play our best, anything beside an Ivy win would be disappointing."
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