Back on track, men dominate in pair of wins; women lose to Penn St.

The men's tennis team pulled off a previously elusive feat not once, but twice, this weekend that it had not managed up to that point in the season — to earn a notch in the win column.

Princeton (2-4 overall) earned two commanding home victories, one on Friday over St. John's (2-4), 6-1, and one on Saturday over St. Joseph's (4-3), 7-0. The women's team (4-3) nearly made it an undefeated weekend for the Tigers' tennis program, narrowly missing victory in a 4-3 loss to Penn State on the road Sunday.

The men's team found its closest competition with St. John's in the doubles match-ups, where the Tigers went 2-1. It was smooth sailing for the Orange and Black in singles play, however, with the team dropping just one set to the Red Storm in six matches.

Seniors Darius Craton, Shannon Morales and Andrew Lieu won in both their singles and doubles play to lead the Tigers to victory, including a comeback win by Craton and Morales in their doubles match after falling behind 4-6.

Demanding perfection, Princeton then bulldozed St. Joseph's the next day, capturing all doubles matches to earn the point and all the singles contests. No Tiger allowed his opponent more than seven games in a match with Craton goose-egging Pat Adams in his contest, 6-0, 6-0. The landslide victory repeated Princeton's 7-0 domination of St. Joseph's last February.

Junior No.1 Sratha Saengsuwarn rallied Saturday to earn a straight-set victory over Jimmy Holland, 6-3, 6-4, after a singles loss on Friday, complementing his doubles win over St. John's with Lieu, 8-4. Senior Hans Plukas also garnered a singles win on Friday and a doubles win with Lieu the next day.

The Tigers also relied on their underclassmen throughout the weekend to nab the wins. Sophomore Jonathan Leslie won both his singles matches at the No. 6 and then No. 5 spot, while freshman Alex Vuckovic came out on top in both his matches on Saturday.

The wins end a season-opening, four-game slide in California in which Princeton never earned more than two points against any one opponent. The Tigers will square off against Stony Brook at home next Saturday.

As with the men's squad, women's tennis showed marked improvement in its performance against Penn State this weekend in University Park, Pa., but even its best efforts did not prove strong enough to eke out a win. Princeton lost 3-4 in the matches against the Nittany Lions, which is nonetheless much better than its 7-0 blowout two years ago when the two faced off on Penn State's home turf, junior Laura Trimble noted.

The Lions and the Tigers went neck-and-neck in both singles and doubles play with junior No. 1 Darcy Robertson as the only Princeton player to triumph in both her singles match, 6-4, 6-4, and her doubles match, the latter played with junior Joanna Roth in a 9-7 nailbiter.

Trimble and senior Jessica Siebel nearly managed to earn the needed win over Jenny Shular and Andreea Niculsecu at the No. 2 doubles spot. The pro-set was in a dead heat at 6-6 before Penn State took the next two games to topple the Tigers.

"We had a marathon game at six-all in the deciding doubles match that we couldn't quite pull out," Trimble said, who also played as Princeton's No. 5 singles player. "Going into the singles we tried to look at the situation positively saying, 'look how close we are, we'll get them in singles.' However, the doubles point really affects the momentum, particularly in a situation where they only have four courts."

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Despite the disappointing loss, Trimble and the rest of the team still are looking forward.

"We [have] reassessed our games and made goals of what everyone needs to work on individually in practice, from hitting more volleys or services to doing a couple extra footwork skills," Trimble said.

They plan to bring their best game to College Park, Md., on Sunday when the Tigers square off against a formidable Maryland squad.