As the favorite coming into this past weekend's ECAC championships, the women's tennis team was squarely in Penn's sights. Despite Princeton's semifinal defeat at the hands of the fourth-seeded Quakers, the tournament revealed an up-and-coming corps of freshmen that should help the Tigers throughout the spring season.
"Some of our depth is young freshmen," head coach Louise Gengler said. "With experience and offseason play they will only get better."
Gengler called attention to freshman Jackie Arcario, who contributed the deciding point — through a 6-0, 3-6, 6-4 win — in the Tigers' 5-2 quarterfinal victory over eighth-seeded Yale.
In Princeton's 4-3 loss to Penn, Arcario was also placed in a similar situation, but lost, 5-6 (7-5), 6-2, 6-4.
"[Jackie] handled the very tough last match position with poise and went down fighting," Gengler said.
Fellow freshman Shikha Uberoi was undefeated at No. 2 singles during the tournament and, paired with junior Priya Bhupathi, also coasted to a 3-0 record at No. 2 doubles.
"I was really impressed with the maturity of the freshmen this weekend," Bhupathi said. "They showed a lot of poise and fought until the very end."
Freshman Rahul Bhargava also did her part against first-round opponent Seton Hall — which the Tigers overwhelmed 7-0. Bhargava recorded wins in both singles and doubles, where she partnered with sophomore Sam Gingold.
Sophomore No. 1 Kavitha Krishnamurthy expressed confidence in the team composition.
"I really think we can depend on anybody if we are in a jam," the sophomore said. "So far, everybody has proven themselves to be competitive players and good leaders."
Nevertheless, Princeton still counts on its top players — Krishnamurthy and Uberoi — to set the tone for the rest of the lineup.
Positive experience
All in all, while the Tigers were relatively disappointed with the end result of the tournament, they still gained much from the experience.
"It was hard to get too down," Gengler said. "We played well, fought hard. We are more determined to work hard this offseason."
Time off over the winter months should give Princeton the chance to gel as a team.
"As a team, we need more experience playing together," Krishnamurthy said. "There is always an adjustment period at the beginning of the year, and we are going through ours now."
There is also room for the Tigers to improve on their doubles play during the offseason.
"I think that our doubles teams could use the next few months to improve as units," Krishnamurthy said. "We have to get used to playing with new partners."
Krishnamurthy, who played No. 3 doubles last year, teamed with senior and returning No. 1 doubles player Gailor Large for a critical 8-7 win against Penn this past weekend. With more practice together during the winter months, the pair will undoubtedly be stronger when the spring season arrives.
While the close loss to Penn was certainly unwelcome, Princeton exits the tournament with a decidedly positive outlook.
"[The freshmen] all got great experience," Gengler said.
"The challenges we faced this weekend have only made us stronger and more passionate about winning the league in the spring," Bhupathi added.
The Tigers next travel to the ITA championships in Los Angeles this weekend before hosting Temple Oct. 27.
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