M. tennis comes back for win against Ivy foe Cornell

The men's tennis season closed successfully last Friday. In a duel against Cornell in Ithaca, N.Y., the Tigers leapt from behind to steal an impending victory from the Big Red and capture third place in the Ivy League, behind Harvard and Brown.

The match was in effect an Ivy League playoff for third place, as both teams posted identical League records (3-3) going into the match. Though Cornell (15-7 overall, 3-4 Ivy League) was not favored to win, Princeton (13-8, 4-3) quickly became the underdog as the Big Red jumped to a strong start.

Cornell captured the doubles point by winning at Nos. 1 and 3. The loss makes it unlikely that Princeton's No. 1 duo of junior Dan Friedman and freshman Darius Craton will qualify for NCAA regionals. At No. 2, freshmen Andrew Lieu and Hans Plukas posted the only doubles win, 9-7.

Though Cornell's doubles success earned itself a mere one-point lead on the scoreboard, the Big Red led by a much larger margin once the singles matches were well underway. By sweeping the first set in five of the six singles matches, the Big Red were poised to savor a 6-1 home-court victory.

Senior Captain Trevor Smith was the first Tiger to hint that Cornell's lead would be short-lived. In the final match of his Princeton career, Smith captured swift victory at No. 1, 6-0, 6-3.

"I'd like to say it was an amazing feat of athleticism, but the guy was injured," Smith acknowledged. "Nevertheless, it was a nice match to end on."

However, wins for Cornell at Nos. 2 and 4 boosted its lead to 3-1. The odds were against Princeton, which needed to win all three of the remaining matches despite trailing in each from the start. At Nos 3., 5 and 6, Friedman, sophomore David Gopstein, and Plukas, respectively, all fought back to split sets.

The tides turned, beginning with Gopstein's three-set victory, 0-6, 6-2, 6-2. Next up was Friedman with his 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 win. In the third and deciding match, the Big Red struck out as Plukas took home the win, 3-6, 6-4, 7-5.

"It was definitely one of the more exciting matches we've had this year," Smith said. "It was a nice way to finish off."

The conclusion to the season also marks the end of Smith's Princeton career as well as his tennis training days. Smith has no plans to continue competitive playing and envisions tennis as taking a recreational role in the future.

"I will resort to playing country club tennis with 40-year-old bosses," Smith joked. "I'll have to get used to playing early morning and late at night with the people I work with."

Smith said the highlight of his college career was in the fall of his sophomore year, when the team won the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference and qualified to play at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association National Team Indoor Championships in Seattle.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

Smith has steadily worked his way up the team ladder, starting at the No. 4 position his freshman year and moving up to No. 3, 2, then 1 over the next three years, respectively. He concludes his final year with a 14-18 singles record and 14-14 doubles record.

Overall, Smith said the past four years have brought him many more good experiences than bad, and the teams varied notably each year.

"The four years really had a distinct feel. Each team had a different personality," Smith said.

"This year," he continued, "I took things much more personally as the only senior and thus the captain. I felt it estranged me from the team — I had a different role than the past few years."

Head coach Glen Michibata said Smith, as the No. 1 player and captain, led the team both on and off the court.

"He grew both on the tennis court and as a leader," Michibata said. "He knew coming in he wanted to be captain . . . and show the younger guys on the team what it means to be a varsity athlete."

Smith pointed to the talented freshman class as the highlight of this year.

"As far as competition and team camaraderie, this year marks the end to that," Smith said. "I really have no regrets to switching to something else. We're all doing that as seniors, so it's nothing too melodramatic."