Men's and women's tennis will finally escape the confines of Jadwin Gymnasium to compete in the southern California sunshine over spring break. In preparation for the long road of Ivy League matches, both teams will face challenging opponents in the University of Southern California, Loyola Marymount, University of San Diego, and San Diego State.
The men's challenge
After several weeks of cruising through non-conference matches, the men's team will be exposed to some of the toughest teams in the country, which will provide a much needed boost to raise their level of play for Ivy League competition.
"The Ivy League season is what we aim for all season, so California will be a great way for us to see some tough competition and smooth out any rough edges," senior captain Trevor Smith said.
The first match this Sunday will be against nationally ranked No. 17 USC. Princeton, ranked at No. 75, will then meet Loyola Marymount, followed by No. 41 University of San Diego and finishing with No. 30 San Diego State.
The travel squad will include a diverse mix of class years — comprised of Smith, juniors Daniel Friedman and Tim Kofol, sophomores Blaise Goswami, David Gopstein and Josh Burman, and freshmen Darius Craton, Hans Plukas and Andrew Lieu. Nearly all the players are going into the spring competition with soaring individual records.
The only apparent obstacles for the team are minimal playing time during the week of midterms and minor injuries to Gopstein and Kofol.
The women follow suit
After crushing St. John's Saturday, 7-0, the women's team will also visit the Golden State over spring break in search of challenging opponents. However, they will leave behind two of their starting six players, freshman Neha Uberoi and junior Jacqui Arcario, due to injury and illness, respectively.
Head coach Louise Gengler said Uberoi is taking precaution to rest her shoulder, which inhibited her from competing in the last two matches, so that she is "100 percent" for Ivy League competition in April.
Gengler indicated that freshman Allison Hashmall, who played No. 3 singles this fall, will most likely replace Uberoi at No. 2 singles for the week, behind senior co-captain Kavitha Krishnamurthy. Sophomore Stephanie Berg will continue playing No. 3, and the next three positions will be split among juniors Mateya McCoy and co-captain Alex Kobishyn, and freshmen Susan Meng and Jessica Siebel. Junior Vanti Bhargava will primarily play doubles.
Gengler said she will rotate the lineup and finalize positions after break. "What we did in the fall is probably our starting point, but we'll get to play a lot of people and there's some flexibility in the lineup," she said.
Gengler will be forced to remain flexible with doubles teams as well, now that Uberoi has temporarily left Krishnamurthy without a partner. The Berg-Kobishyn pairing at No. 3 is the only certainty.
"We've been experimenting with No. 2 doubles, and we'll probably keep experimenting," Gengler said.
Though they will escape the snow, the Tigers will face the disadvantage of having to compete outdoors for the first time this season.
"It's a little frustrating not having played outdoors this week," Gengler said. The Tigers will have just two days of outdoor practice before their first match.
"Almost always our first match outdoors is difficult," Gengler added, "but two days [of outdoor practice] is better than no days."
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