The men's and women's tennis teams had very similar weekends with both taking on Ivy League foes Brown and Yale. In addition, both squads split their matches to finish the weekend 1-1. For the women (5-10 overall, 1-2 Ivy League), playing Yale (7-8, 2-0) on the road proved to be quite a challenge, but Brown (8-8, 0-2)in Providence was a breeze. As for the men (9-7, 2-1), who were playing at home, Yale (5-9, 0-1) was no contest, while seemingly indelible Brown (16-5, 2-0) came into town too strong to lose.
For the women, Friday's match against Yale was a heartbreaking loss. The Tigers played tough the entire match but had trouble pulling out the needed points. Princeton took an early lead in the match by taking the doubles point. The Elis battled back to win straight set victories in all six remaining singles matches.
To lead off the day, the No. 3 Princeton doubles team of junior Stephanie Berg and freshman Laura Trimble won decisively, followed by a victory at No. 2 by senior co-captain Mateya McCoy and freshman Darcy Robertson to clinch the doubles point, 9-7. However, shortly after these two matches, the Bulldogs made the decision to move the match indoors due to weather. The Tigers could never recover from their disrupted momentum, and they fell to Yale by the final 6-1 margin. But the rough goings at Yale seemed only to fire up the Tigers for Saturday, as the team traveled to Brown, where they notched a 5-2 victory over the Bears.
"We came back Saturday with a solid and well deserved win, I thought," sophomore Jessica Siebel said of her team. "We had a great No. 1 win at doubles and our Nos. 4 and 5 singles battled to win third set victories for us."
The Tigers, in fact, won four three-set victories in all, coming from behind in two singles matches to win. At the No. 2 spot, sophomore Alison Hashmall, who has been a huge contributor for the Tigers since her return from injury, battled for the win, and No. 4 Berg also came out on top. Robinson, Princeton's No. 1, also played a stellar match, winning in a third set tiebreak.
In doubles, the No. 1 team of seniors Vanti Bhargava and Alex Kobishyn helped clinch the doubles point. "We really look to our senior co-captains for great leadership," Siebel said. "Vanti and Alex had a great win that really helped us get motivated and fight."
The men's team had similar results this past weekend, also splitting their matches while at home. Friday, the Tigers opened brilliantly, swiping a solid win from Yale.
The No. 1 doubles team of senior Dan Friedman and sophomore Darius Craton posted a big 8-6 win against Yale's No. 1 team of Ryan Murphy and Rowan Reynolds. In singles play, Craton lost only two games in route to his defeat of Yale's No. 1 Murph.
But Saturday's match did not follow suit. Though the Tigers were victorious at No. 2 doubles, with a win by senior Tim Kofol and freshman Sratha Saenguswarn, Brown, the No. 44-ranked team in the country, picked up the doubles point on its way to handing Princeton the loss in a 7-0 sweep.
The Tigers played hard, staying in each match as long as they could. But the Bears seemed to have the edge in most of the match-ups, eventually wearing the Princeton players down. Two of the matches went to three sets.
"The final score was 7-0, but it was much closer than that. It was really disappointing. I think everyone played tough and put it on the line," Freidman said.
Following their weekend split, both Tiger teams will now gear up for one of their biggest matches of the Ivy League season this Friday against Harvard.
"With a win on Saturday under our belts, we are looking forward to stepping up the level of play another notch in expectation of a tough and competitive match against the returning Ivy League champions," Siebel said.
The Tigers will come out to play Friday, but will have to bring their best in order to upset the defending champs.
"Next weekend is obvously going to be tough, last year we came close to upsetting them. I definitely think we can win," Freidman said.
The women will take on the Crimson at home next weekend, while the men will travel to Cambridge.
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