Men's tennis starts off season 1-1, doubles teams look solid

Back-to-back matches are always a difficult war to wage, and when the levels of the teams involved differ greatly, it can be even tougher to predict the outcome.

The men's tennis team recently encountered both ups and downs early in their spring season as they took an easy victory over Old Dominion only to have it followed by some tough obstacles in a match against Virginia Common-wealth.

The Tigers won against Old Dominion 5-2 early in this month when they traveled to Virginia during Intersession. The team easily took the doubles point, winning the first two matches. Freshman Josh Burman and sophomore Daniel Friedman won 8-4 at the No. 1 spot and sophomore Tim Kofol and senior co-captain Judson Williams won 8-5 at No. 2 doubles.

In singles, the team proved to be just as on-target as they had been in doubles. The Tigers swept their opponents at the No. 2, 3 and 4 spots with wins from junior Trevor Smith, senior Darren Joe and Burman.

When the Tigers faced off against Virginia Commonwealth, they ran into some rough patches, and ended up walking away with a 6-1 loss.

The men had one win in doubles from sophomore Hendrick Chasse and Joe, who won 8-5, but unfortunately, the Rams gained the doubles point with a 9-8 win at first doubles.

In singles, their only win was at the No. 5 spot. Friedman had split sets, 2-6, 6-2, but the Rams retired early in the third set, giving the Tigers the point.

"These two matches were more of a warm-up for the team than anything else," Williams said. "We're interchangeable at the No. 2 through the No. 6 positions, so coach is just experimenting with a bunch of different lineups. That is what is really dangerous about our team this year. No team we play will know what our lineup will be on any given day. We're very even and we're very deep. I don't think we'll play two matches in a row with everyone in the same spots.

"Virginia Commonwealth is one of the top teams in the nation, and those were just warm up matches. I wouldn't read a whole lot into them. But we were especially pleased with how our doubles played."

The Tigers finished last year ranked at No. 65 in the country and should look forward to a successful run in the Ivy League, given that they have seasoned veterans at the helm.

With an easy win and a difficult loss played back to back, the team has experienced the best and worst. They can now go into the Ivy season ready for anything.

"In the Ivies, we are definitely among the best teams in the league, along with Harvard and Brown," Williams said.

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"Any team in the league will probably be nervous to meet up with us this spring given the talent that we have on our team. We can beat any team in the Ivies on a given day."

The men's next match is against New Jersey-rival Rutgers on Feb 22 and the following day, the Tigers will go up against Georgetown.