Despite the overcast chill at the Lenz Tennis Center, the No. 73 men's tennis team brought on the heat to narrowly defeat No. 74 Harvard 4-3 on Saturday afternoon — the first time the Tigers have beaten the Crimson in a dual match since 1997.
The match capped off a perfect weekend of Ivy play for Princeton tennis. The women's team won both of its weekend matches by a score of 6-1, toppling league foes Harvard and Dartmouth on the road.
Before their Saturday matchup against the Crimson, the Tiger men (11-5 overall, 4-1 Ivy League) swept Dartmouth (16-6, 1-3) on Friday in Jadwin Gym, 7-0. After winning all three doubles matches to snatch the doubles point, the Tigers barely flinched against the Big Green in singles, dropping only one set.
Princeton carried this momentum into the next day to take down Harvard (7-9, 2-2), but storm conditions kept the Tigers from testing out their hot streak against non-conference opponent North Carolina-Wilmington on Monday.
Like they did against the Big Green, the Tigers started strong against Harvard by sweeping the doubles matches to secure its first point.
In singles, however, the Crimson proved tough challengers. Harvard pulled out victories at the No. 4 and 5 spots, but Princeton managed to maintain the lead with wins at No. 2 and 6. Senior captain Sratha Saengsuwarn bolstered his record to 10-3 for the season at No. 2 singles.
With the overall score at 3-2, two tight matches were left in play.
It was a battle between nationally ranked foes as sophomore No. 125 Peter Capkovic challenged No. 112 Chris Clayton at No. 1 singles, while at No. 3, freshman George Carpeni faced Harvard's Dan Nguyen. Both of these matched simultaneously extended into nail-biting third-set tiebreakers.
"You can't get any more pressure than that," head coach Glenn Michibata said. "That's where the character comes through. You can't be thinking about your strokes at that moment, it's just who wants it more, who believes in what they are doing more."
With a captive audience looking on, Carpeni gracefully proved his mettle, dominating Nguyen 7-2 in the tiebreaker.
As Carpeni dealt the final blow that clinched the Tigers' victory, the crowd's passionate cheers for Carpeni distracted Capkovic as he hit the ball into the net. With Princeton's victory secured and the pressure deflated, Capkovic lost the tiebreaker 7-4.
After the match, however, Capkovic was sporting one of the biggest smiles for the Tigers. Though tennis is primarily an individual sport, this Princeton team seems to view every match as a team effort.
Though it was Coach Michibata's first win over Harvard in his career at Princeton, he was not surprised with this team's success.
"The team has really come into its own," Michibata said. "We've shown some resolve and some character that has been missing at times during other seasons. It's not any stroke, it's not any strategy, it's just a belief in what they're doing."
Not to be outdone by the men, the women's team (11-7, 3-2) maintained a perfect singles record to dominate its Ivy opponents this weekend.
In their 6-1 win at Dartmouth (8-8, 0-4) on Friday, the women warmed up slowly. Senior Darcy Robertson and freshman Sarah Huah pulled out a win at No. 2 doubles, but the other two teams faltered, losing the doubles point for the Tigers.
Princeton quickly recovered to claim victories in every singles match, dropping only one set to the Big Green.
The Tigers then traveled to Harvard to face the Crimson on Saturday afternoon. Head coach Kathy Sell restructured the top of the lineup for the match, moving junior Ivana King to the No. 1 spot and dropping freshman Melissa Saiontz into the No. 2 position. King is 14-2 in matches this season, and Sell felt King deserved a chance to prove herself at the top.
Against Harvard, Princeton mimicked its performance against Dartmouth by losing the doubles point but sweeping the singles point to claim a 6-1 victory.
Sell sees doubles as an area of potential improvement, but she points to the strength at singles as an indicator of the team's strength.
"It was great to see the Princeton players compete two days in a row without letting up at all in singles," Sell said in an email. "That is what great teams do — they keep going after it and giving their best day in and day out."
Both the men's and women's teams will take on Columbia and Cornell this weekend in the last matches of the regular season.
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