Tigers struggle at ITA Regionals over weekend

Despite the momentum they've been playing with this season, the Princeton men's and women's tennis teams were reminded this past weekend that they can't win them all.

In a disappointing start at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Regionals hosted by Army at Lichtenberg Tennis Center, the Tigers didn't play as well as they would have liked. But though most of the usual contenders on both teams, seniors Darius Crayton and Andrew Lieu among them, were ousted in the first couple of rounds, the weekend saw some good performances as well.

On the women's side, senior Jessica Siebel and sophomore Ivana King had good showings. Siebel got through the qualifying rounds and made it to the first round of the tournament, where she was beaten in a tough three-set match in the first round.

"The coaches, we made an error in judgment as her match went on earlier than we expected, and we did not get her a proper warm-up," women's assistant coach Marc Lucero said of the loss. "If she could have won the second-set tiebreaker, there is no doubt in my mind that she would have won the match."

Siebel, however, joined with King for a stellar performance in doubles. They beat the top seeds in the first round and had a run all the way to the quarterfinals.

"Jessica and Ivana did a great job in doubles of committing to a game plan and determining their own outcomes in their first two matches," Lucero said. "We like to talk about what we are going to do to our opponents, rather than seeing what our opponents are going to do and then reacting."

Their run was marked by a clutch comeback against the No. 6-seeded team from Virginia Tech. "They were down, 4-1, and then figured out that they wanted to take control of the match. After that it wasn't even close," Lucero said.

"I think the first match was probably the most important one because we were playing a seed, [and also because] first matches are generally the hardest ones," King said. "It's the struggle of getting past the first round. What kept me motivated was the fact that I didn't think there was a team out there that we should lose to, so when we played the first two matches, we had a very strong mentality [that we should] play our game, pump our partners up, and be at least three-balls tough."

Eventually inconsistency crept into their game, causing them to lose in the quarterfinals to Columbia. "Unfortunately when we played the third round, we didn't reset our minds. Unforced errors were all over the place," King said.

For Siebel, this tournament was just another way of displaying her incredible potential.

"Last year Jessica showed us that she could play even with any player in the country. She went three sets with a girl who was top 10 in the country and was the only player to beat someone who was in the national rankings," Lucero said.

The key for Siebel is starting matches as strong as she finishes.

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"Instead of working her way into matches, we want her to bring it from the very first ball," Lucero said.

Though the weekend wasn't quite as lucrative for the men's tennis team, there was one player who displayed his excellent potential. Freshman Alex Vuckovic showed why he deserves his status as one of team's most coveted recruits this year.

"This was an important tournament for Alex," said men's head coach Glenn Michibata. "He started the tournament very slowly, losing the first set to a player he should probably beat on a regular basis. Something clicked at the beginning of the second set and he started playing better. After the match he described it as feeling 'natural' for the first time this semester. That's a good description."

Despite the difficulties of getting adjusted to college, Vuckovic is really starting to pick up his game.

"Making the adjustment to college, and specifically Princeton, and learning how to manage his time so that he can excel at both school and tennis is tough," Michibata said of the transition.

Though Vuckovic came up short in the first round of the main draw to Desmarteau of St. John's, 6-3, 7-5, the fact that Vuckovic made it past the qualifying rounds as a freshman is a sign of his immense promise for the rest of the season.

"If Alex keeps improving and feeling more at home, he would have a chance of beating that same player, but on this day, he didn't have enough game," Michibata said.

The future is bright for the Princeton men's and women's tennis teams. They have the talent and the work ethic to match, so success will be just a matter of time.