Men's, women's tennis visit California to gear up for Ivy season

Both the men's and women's tennis teams returned this weekend from a tough week in California. They spent their Spring Breaks in Southern California soaking up the sun and trying to get in some training and wins before returning home.

"We had double practices during the week, playing in the mornings and afternoons in La Jolla and in Los Angeles," senior women's captain Alex Kobishyn said. "We're continuing to gear up mentally for the Ivy season."

The Tigers had a tough time against a full schedule of nationally ranked teams. The men finished 1-3, and the women were 0-4 on the week.

The men opened with a match against their toughest opponent, 20th-ranked Pepperdine. Despite competitive third-set tiebreak losses by sophomore Hans Plukas and senior Tim Kofol at the Nos. 5 and 6 singles spots, respectively, the Tigers learned quickly that in order to achieve positive results against such strong West Coast teams, they would have to step up their game from where it was previously.

"We knew it would be tough coming in," sophomore No. 1 singles Darius Craton said. "We didn't perform to our expectations against Pepperdine, and we knew we'd have to come out better for the next matches."

And come out better they did. Despite a 5-2 loss against No. 56 San Diego St., the Tigers dominated doubles play. Craton and senior captain Dan Friedman won an impressive victory at the No. 1 doubles spot, 8-4, while Kofol and freshman Sratha Saengsuwarn won decisively, 8-1.

The same day, the Tigers won big against No. 57 Purdue, 5-2. In singles play, Craton lost only one game in a straight-set victory at the No. 2 spot. The Tigers also took the doubles point, aided by a big victory from sophomore Andrew Lieu and junior David Gopstein at the No. 3 doubles spot.

"We came up short against SDSU, but we came out better [in the next match]," Craton said. "Against Purdue, everyone came out firing all the way up and down the lineup."

The men played San Diego in their final match in California. Despite the 6-1 team loss, Friedman won impressively at the No. 2 singles spot in a 10-point tiebreak. The Tigers also took the Toreros to third-set matches at the last three singles spots.

"Despite some of the losses, we played every team," Craton said. "We played tough and we played hard. That's the way we want to come out against the Ivy league now that we've returned."

The men know they have the talent to win big this year — they now just need to focus and keep their confidence up throughout each match.

"[It's easy to] focus on the result [of these past matches] as opposed to the process," Friedman said. "This being said, it is evident that we have the game to win the Ivies. We played neck-and-neck with a team that was ranked top-30 earlier in the year. There is no secret formula to winning the Ivies. It will come down to who is the most focused, who has the strongest belief in themselves, and who wants it bad enough."

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The women, despite four losses in California, are also looking forward to their Ivy League play back on the East Coast this season.

Like the men, the Tigers first took on their toughest opponent, San Diego, and lost 7-0. Several of the matches, however, were close. At the No. 5 singles spot, freshman Laura Trimble forced San Diego's Lauren Kazarian to seven games in a close first-set loss.

Although Princeton also dropped its next two matches, sophomore Rankin Williams shined at the No. 6 spot with a decisive 6-1, 6-1 win against Julie Litrich of San Diego St. Williams also took Denver's Beth Messaros to a second-set tiebreak, though she lost that match, 7-0.

The Tigers came out strong against their final opponent, Loyola Marymount, losing by the narrow score of 4-3. Sophomore Alison Hashmall, junior Stephanie Berg and Trimble all took their singles points at the Nos. 3, 4 and 5 spots, respectively.

All in all, the Tigers took the trip as more of a spring training experience to gear up for Ivy League play rather than a set of spring matches that would hurt their overall record. The week was an opportunity for Princeton to fine-tune its game and pinpoint precisely what the team will need to work on before its real season begins in April.

"This past week was tough and really competitive," sophomore Jess Siebel said. "But it was mainly for us to get out there, have some fun and figure out our lineup."

The women will return to action against Rutgers on Wednesday.