Women's tennis goes .500 on the weekend at Columbia

This past weekend the men's and women's tennis teams participated in two tournaments. The women traveled to Columbia University in New York City for the Columbia Invitational, and the men competed in the Eastern College Athletic Conference Tournament at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows.

The women did well, playing in a scrimmage format against Columbia and Penn and boasting an overall record for the weekend of 10-8 in singles matches and 2-4 in doubles. Each of the six players who travelled to Columbia — freshmen Darcy Robertson, Joanna Roth and Laura Trimble, sophomore Jessica Siebel and juniors Stephanie Berg and Kristin Carlin — was able to play three singles and two doubles matches.

Head coach Louise Gengler was especially pleased with the singles play of her three freshmen, who posted an overall winning record of 7-2. Robertson posted a 3-0 record and Roth and Trimble each went 2-1. Trimble had one of the best wins of the tournament, defeating one of Penn's top players.

Looking to the future, the next big tournament for the women's tennis team is the Ivy Invitational next weekend at the National Tennis Center.

Men's at ECACs

On Friday the men's team defeated Navy, 7-0, in the first round of ECAC Tournament play. In doubles, the duo of sophomore Darius Craton and junior David Gopstein won their match, as did senior co-captain Tim Kofol and freshman Sratha Saengsuwarn. The Tigers dominated Navy in singles play as well.

On Saturday, the Princeton men lost in the quarterfinals to Cornell, 7-0. In doubles, Craton and Gopstein lost to Josh Raff and Nicolas Brunner, 8-4, while sophomores Andrew Lieu and Hans Plukas lost to Zach Gallin and Scott Spencer, 8-4. Kofol and Saengsuwarn managed to pull out a victory against Scott Paltrowitz and Aravinda Neuman, 8-2.

The team struggled more in its singles matches, however. Craton lost to Gallin, 7-6 (9), 6-2; Lieu lost to Paltrowitz, 6-3, 6-2; Plukas was defeated by McKeon, 6-4, 6-4; Gopstein lost to Brunner, 6-2, 2-6, 1-0 (13); Saengsuwarn lost to Neuman, 6-4, 6-3; and Morales lost to Ray Wu, 6-1, 6-1.

The men played hard against Penn in the fifth-place playoff on Sunday, but they were unable to claim a victory and lost, 5-2.

"The team played hard and competed well" despite the losses, head coach Glen Michibata said.

The absence of two of the team's best players — junior Josh Burman and senior co-captain Dan Friedman — hurt the Tigers considerably, however.

"Ultimately, the fact that we were missing two of our best players was too much to overcome," Michibata said.

As a result of the holes in the lineup, the team was forced to play with doubles combinations that it would not normally use, while all the singles players were forced to move up two spots higher than they are accustomed to.

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Still, there were some bright spots. Kofol had a good weekend in doubles, going 2-1 and maintaining a steadying presence on the court. Saengsuwarn, the team's top recruit, went 2-1 with Kofol, improving his overall record for the season in doubles to 6-2. Also posting good scores was Craton, who went 2-1 in singles for the weekend and 2-1 in doubles with Gopstein.

Improvment still needed

Looking ahead, Michibata explained that the team needs to focus on improving its shot selection and decision making, developing a clearer understanding of what to do in each situation and taking advantage of its individual strengths while minimizing weaknesses. He also noted that the team needs to work on finishing each point.

"We are very good at the beginning and middle of each point," Michibata said, "but when it comes to ending the point, we do not execute very well."

Still, he is optimistic about his team's prospects.

"Despite the two losses, my hopes for this season have not changed from when we started the season," he said. "We will contend for the Ivy League title and attain a top-75 national ranking. In the long term we will aim to be favorites to win the Ivy League (as opposed to just contending) and reach a national ranking in the top 30."