M. tennis defeats St. Joseph's, BC

"Our goal is to win the Ivies, and, so help me God, we will," senior Tim Kofol said after the men's tennis team swept both its matches this weekend at Jadwin against St. Joseph's and Boston College with identical 6-1 scores to improve to 3-4 on the season.

Senior Dan Friedman, playing at No. 1 for the first time, decisively won a huge match against the Hawks' No. 1, Francisco Velazquez, 6-3, 6-2. Friedman went 4-0 on the weekend.

The Tigers dominated in doubles, winning all six matches.

"We have a great group of guys who are beginning to understand what it takes to make it to the top," Friedman said. "It's nice to see our hard work finally paying off."

While their work is paying off now, the Tigers understand that the season continues for three more months.

"[I'm happy with the] way that all of our hard work is beginning to pay off," Kofol said, "[but] we view the season as a marathon, not a sprint."

The Tigers played this weekend with two entirely different lineups for their matches against St. Joseph's and BC. Against the Eagles, Princeton only lost 22 games total in all six singles matches.

"This weekend we really came together as a team," Kofol said. "We hope to continue our positive streak this weekend and beyond."

The men's team takes on George Washington and Stony Brook next weekend.

The women's team did not enjoy the same success as its male counterparts, losing to both Penn State and Marshall in 7-0 sweeps.

"Our weekend was not the best in the world," freshman No. 1 Darcy Robertson said. "It was disappointing on many levels. As tennis is an individual sport, we all felt responsible for the loss."

Saturday against Marshall, many of the Tigers battled to three-set losses and tiebreaks, making the end result that much more disappointing, as many of the matches were actually closer than the scores might suggest. At No. 2 doubles, for example, Robertson and sophomore Jessica Siebel lost in a third-set tiebreak, 9-8. While it was a great battle, the breaks did not go Princeton's way and the Tigers' effort was not reflected in the score.

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

Robertson also took Penn State's No. 1 singles player, Leigh Ann Merryman, to a third-set tiebreak, losing 9-7 after taking the second set.

"We learned a lot about our team and our program this weekend," Robertson said. "While we definitely bonded over our defeats, we also know exactly what we need to work on."

The women have a busy weekend coming up, with matches both home and away. The Tigers will host George Washington this Friday before getting another shot at playing on the road, when they travel to Maryland on Sunday.