Capkovic, Tigers down Stony Brook, validate No. 50 ranking

“One of our goals this season was to be ranked in the top 40,” Michibata said. “We are on the right track now. We did it without the injured [junior] Alex Vuckovic, which is the only surprising part.”

Princeton (6-3) started the match against Stony Brook (3-2) by winning the doubles point 2-1, an area of the team’s game that has recently given it trouble. No. 1 doubles pair sophomore George Carpeni and freshman Alex Faust won their match with a solid score of 8-4. The No. 3 tandem of junior Peter Capkovic and freshman Ryan Kim won even more convincingly, 8-3. This left the Tigers needing only a split of the six singles matchups to claim victory.

Singles No. 1 Capkovic started the singles portion of the match forcefully by losing only two games in his two-set victory, winning 6-0, 6-2. No. 2 Carpeni followed this with his own two-set win, though it did not come as easily, finishing 7-5, 6-1.

The Tigers then struggled to win the third singles point. Princeton fielded three freshmen to fill out the rest of its lineup: No. 3 Kim, who is a regular starter, as well as No. 5 Faust and No. 6 Parker Preyer. This was Preyer’s first match of the year.

“We held out [junior] Alex Krueger-Wyman because he was slightly injured,” Michibata said. “I wanted to see what the freshmen could do. I wanted to see how people perform under pressure.”

Pressure was certainly on Preyer as he battled it out against Stony Brook’s Juan Carlos Cotto. Realizing that Princeton was losing its other matches, he knew his win would be key to the overall victory.

“It was interesting to see how he handled it,” Michibata said. “He knew there was a lot of pressure and handled it very well. He had a solid game plan and executed it.”

Preyer’s 6-1, 6-4 win sealed the match for the Tigers, their fifth win in their last six matches. This weekend’s roster manipulation is the result of the loss of Vuckovic, one of the team’s regular starters, which forced Michibata to experiment with new combinations to find a winning strategy.

“We have to get stronger at the bottom of our lineup. No one has really claimed the No. 6 spot yet,” Michibata said. “We are just looking forward to spring break. Hopefully the next few matches will help us move up in the rankings before the Ivy League [season].”

The team leaves next weekend for a road trip to Southern California for a series of four matches starting on Monday, the last matches before the opening of Ivy League play against Penn on March 29. Princeton’s toughest match of the break will likely come against No. 43 Pepperdine, where the Tigers may feel Vuckovic’s absence more acutely than they did this weekend.