Men's, women's tennis finish seasons with strong victories

7-6, 6-3. Princeton point.

6-1, 6-3. Princeton point.

6-4, 6-0. Princeton point.

Noticing a trend? But wait, there's more:

6-4, 6-2. And of course, you guessed it: Princeton points.

In the final game of the season, the men's tennis team decided that it had to finish on a good note. And it was not enough to simply beat Ivy League rival Penn at home last Saturday. Princeton completely destroyed them, polishing off the Quakers, 5-2.

The women's team made a statement of its own. On April 27th, the Tigers walked off the court as champions.

Playing in its final contest of the 2000 - 2001 season, the women's team demonstrated why it was so highly touted at the outset of the year. It also showed why it was able to give its opponents, some of whom are considered the best players in the nation, both difficult matches as well as surprising upsets.

This past Friday, Princeton met Temple at the Lenz Tennis Center. The Tigers had already finished their Ivy League season with a record of 3-4, but they were anxious to bring home another victory after defeating Cornell the previous weekend.

The contest had an auspicious beginning for the Tigers. In doubles play, the teams of senior Gailor Large and sophomore Kavitha Krishnamurthy, junior Kristi Watson and freshman Avanti Bhargava and sophomore Priya Bhupathi and freshman Jackie Arcario all won their matches. The sweep of the Owls in doubles competition marked the first time this season that the Tigers have won all three doubles matches.

With their success in doubles competition, it may have been hard for the Tigers to stay focused and keep their intensity high for the singles matches. But the Tigers held on to their momentum and dominated the Owls throughout their singles competition — winning, 5-2.

Watson, Bhupathi, Arcario and freshman Mateya McCoy all decisively won their matches. The only two graduating seniors, Large and Anne Coates, eventually dropped both their matches in spite of making their opponents fight viciously for every point. Although it was not the ending that either would have preferred, their contributions throughout the season and careers cannot be denied.

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"Gailor and Anne are tremendous competitors who have represented Princeton well with their great tennis, sportsmanship and heart," said head coach Louise Gengler in a recent release. "Their leadership this year has been invaluable to the team and the example they have set on and off the court is a standard for the underclassmen."

Both Large and Coates will be missed next season. Large played in the number one singles spot for most of the year, and Coates is one of the few players on the squad to have played in every match of the season.

"I will definitely miss all of my teammates," Coates said. "They have been one of the biggest parts of my experience at Princeton."

When the two seniors walked off the court for the last time as competitors for Princeton, and the team walked out of Lenz arena for the last time this season, they were able to do it with their heads high — as victors.

Quaking

The men's team relied on its top four singles players against Penn, — senior Kyle Kliegerman, junior Judson Williams, sophomore Trevor Smith and freshman Tim Kofol all won their matches. The doubles teams of Kliegerman and junior John Portlock, Kofol and Williams, and freshman Hendrik Chasse and freshman Daniel Friedman also beat their opponents, earning the doubles point.

The only two Princeton players to drop their singles matches were Friedman and junior Nick Benjamin, who were playing in the number five and six singles spots, respectively. Both pushed the matches to three sets, however. Friedman eventually fell to Penn's Eric Sobotka, 4-6, 6-1, 6-1, while Benjamin lost his match against Andy Kolker, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4.

With their season completed, the Tigers find themselves with a final record of 10-9 on the season and 5-2 in the Ivy League. Although they had hopes of bringing home the Ivy title, they ended up in third place —behind first-place Harvard and Columbia, which squeezed into the second-place spot.

"One of the biggest disappointments of the season was when we lost to Harvard," Kliegerman said. "We knew that when we lost it, whoever won [the Ivy League title] would be in their hands. If just a couple of things had gone our way, we might have had a different ending."

In spite of coming up short during the spring, the Tigers still had an impressive year overall.

"Bringing home the (Eastern Coast Athletic Conference) title in the fall was a great feeling," Kliegerman said. "It was definitely one of the highlights of our year."