Men's, women's teams see win streaks broken

After winning six matches in a row, the No. 64 women's tennis team (7-5) faced a rude awakening on the West Coast against some of the best teams in the nation. The Tigers dropped three matchups to ranked opponents and posted just a single win. The No. 64 men's team (7-4) similarly saw its four-match winning streak broken in California as it also posted a 1-3 spring break record.

The men lost their first match to No. 75 UC Irvine, 4-3, due to tough doubles losses. Senior captain Sratha Saengsuwarn, freshman Charlie Brosens and junior Jonathan Leslie pulled off singles wins to tie the score at 3-3, but the Anteaters won the doubles point by beating all three of Princeton's doubles squads.

The Tigers rebounded to defeat No. 65 Utah, 5-2. The Utes' captured their only points at doubles and No. 6 singles. The match was tied at 2-2 after freshmen George Carpeni and Brosens claimed straight-set victories, but triumphs by sophomore No. 1 Peter Capkovic, No. 2 Saengsuwarn and sophomore No. 4 Alex Vuckovic secured the win.

"I felt like the best match of the trip was against Utah," head coach Glenn Michibata said. "We played very well in singles."

Against No. 69 San Diego State, Princeton did not fare as well, as the Aztecs swept the Tigers at singles to post a 6-1 victory. Senior Ted Mabrey and Carpeni snatched a huge win in No. 1 doubles over the No. 17 duo team in the country to lead the charge to the doubles point.

In its last match of the break, Princeton suffered another 6-1 loss at the hands of unranked San Diego, as the Tigers were again swept at singles.

Overall, the team played well but came back disappointed.

"I felt we should've come back with a better record," Michibata said.

The women's team was similarly frustrated by its opponents.

"There were a lot of close matches," junior co-captain Ivana King said. "We played well, just a little messy, and some points didn't go in our favor."

The women fell to three highly ranked teams No. 23 Duke, No. 19 Pepperdine and No. 50 Long Beach State, but they easily trounced unranked San Diego.

Duke — head coach Kathy Sell's alma mater — handed Princeton its first loss, 7-0. Though King and freshman Melissa Saiontz won their first sets, the Blue Devils swept the Tigers in both singles and doubles.

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Princeton regained its footing against San Diego, losing just one singles match in a 6-1 win.

The Tigers fell to No. 19 Pepperdine in their next match-up. Though Princeton went down 6-1, the numbers are deceptive. The Tigers barely lost the doubles point following a narrow 7-9 defeat in the third match. While King garnered the lone singles win in straight sets, Saiontz suffered an incredibly close defeat at No. 1 singles. After winning the first set in a tiebreak and losing the second set in another tiebreak, she lost 12-10 in the tiebreaking pro-set.

In another set of tight matches, Princeton lost to No. 50 Long Beach State, 6-1, in its final match of the trip. King, a Long Beach native, was again the Tigers' lone victor at No. 2 singles.

"I came into my [matches] not really thinking that they were better than me, and I think that's key in playing, especially in college tennis," King said. "I took one point at a time, I tried not to focus on who we were playing but [on] the opponent across the net."

Though the women returned to Princeton with a losing record, Sell is still excited about the team's potential.

"Our spring trip is always a great opportunity to compete against highly ranked teams outside of our region," Sell said in an email. "All these schools are experienced, mentally tough, and solid from spots one through six."

The men open Ivy League play against Penn on Saturday afternoon, while the women face Temple on Thursday night and open Ivy League play this weekend.

"Tough matches certainly helped us prepare to compete under pressure," Sell said. "We have an exciting four weeks ahead of us with Ivy matches every weekend and so the challenge is to raise our level consistently."