Princeton stays perfect at home

On its home turf, the men's tennis team seems unstoppable. After an opening four-match road trip in California over intersession in which the team went 0-4, the Tigers (4-4 overall) have turned their season's momentum around and have amassed a four-game win streak at Jadwin Gym's indoor courts.

The latest of these wins came Friday against Army, a match in which Princeton clinched a 4-3 victory, winning the doubles point and three singles matches.

The Tigers' double teams of No. 1 seniors Andrew Lieu/Hans Plukas, No. 2 junior Ted Mabrey and freshman Alex Vuckovic and No. 3 seniors Shannon Morales/Darius Craton were all victorious and earned the doubles point for Princeton. While the pairings for the No. 1 and No. 2 teams have been in flux throughout the season, the No. 3 squad has been set as a unit all season and now boasts a 7-1 record.

The Tigers also earned wins in singles play with No. 6 sophomore Jonathan Leslie stomping Army's David Collins by a score of 6-0, 6-1. Collin's baseline style played right into the hands of Leslie, a baseliner himself.

"It was just a really good match-up," Leslie said. "He had a big serve and then basically he stayed at the baseline. For me, if I could get the serve back, that's a dream come true. I was just able to wear him down and eventually, he just got frustrated and gave me points."

Craton also earned a No. 1 win in his singles match, 7-6, 6-2. Lieu also notched two victories thanks to a straight-set win at the No. 3 position.

At No. 2, Plukas fell to Army's Carl Fisher in two sets after pushing the second to a tiebreaker.

Princeton's two other losses were not defeats in the traditional sense, as the matches ended prematurely. Morales retired in the second set down 7-5, 3-0 at No. 4 singles. With the Tigers' intense spring break road trip less than a week away — and Princeton's win over Army already in the bag — Morales, whose knees have been acting up this semester, retired to avert any possible injury.

"He was just having a really, really long match, and he's had some injury problems," Leslie said. "Going into the spring, there's really no sense in pushing it through that second set."

Vuckovic's match at the No. 5 position against Michael Good also ended prematurely. With the Tigers' overall victory decided, Good and Vuckovic faced off in a ten-point super tiebreaker, which Vuckovic lost 10-7, to decide the match instead of a regular third set.

"It was a tight match," Leslie said. "Alex came back and won the second set after [Good] was serving for the match."

After facing off against two nationally-ranked teams in California to open this season's play on the road, the Tigers are now benefiting from home-court rule and look forward to the opportunity to begin to play outdoors. With a few home wins under its belt, Princeton is playing much more confidently than it did earlier in the season.

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Head coach Glenn Michibata constantly mixes up the seedings and players for singles matches from one opponent to the next to tailor the Tigers' play to take advantage of opponents' weaknesses.

"In terms of singles, we've got [several] guys who have been playing a lot," Leslie said. "Our coach basically has got the top three set... he shuffles the rest of us around just based on matchups for the most part. He gets the scouting reports and if he likes a certain matchup, he'll put certain people in certain slots."

Princeton will look to continue its winning ways when it takes another extended road trip for spring break. The Tigers will first face off against Pepperdine on March 18 and then Loyola Marymount on March 20, Washington on March 21 and San Diego State on March 23 in a final string of matches before the Ivy season opens on March 31 against Penn.