Men win, women lose against Ivy foe Penn

“We all have our sights on being the best program in the league,” women’s head coach Kathy Sell said.

Unfortunately for the Tigers, they stumbled out of the gate, as the women fell at home to the Quakers, 5-2. The men, however, were on the winning side of a 5-2 contest with the Quakers while playing on the road in Philadelphia.

The men’s team (9-5 overall, 1-0 Ivy League), currently ranked No. 71 in the country, headed into the match against Penn (9-8, 0-1) with a slight advantage, even though the Penn squad is the two-time defending Ivy League champion.

The women’s team (7-7, 0-1), fresh off its first national ranking of the season at No. 64, played well but faltered in a few three-set singles matchups that sealed the team victory for No. 72 Penn.

The men’s team started its match on the right foot by winning the doubles point, an aspect of its game it struggled with at the beginning of the season but has recently improved on.

The Tigers continued on to win four out of six singles matches to seal their strong 5-2 victory. The most lopsided of these matchups was sophomore No. 3 George Carpeni’s 6-1, 6-0 victory against Justin Fox. Junior No. 1 Peter Capkovic fell into an early hole, losing the first set 6-4, but rebounded to impressively win the next two sets, 6-4, 6-4.

Junior No. 2 doubles and No. 5 singles player Alex Vuckovic was once again in the lineup after coming off a back injury that has kept him out for much of the early part of the season. One of the Tigers’ stalwart starters, he has not yet fully returned to form, losing his singles match, 6-4, 6-4, but his return to the lineup definitely solves some of the issues the Tigers were having on the doubles point, as it allows more complementary pairings.

The women’s match featured two comparably ranked teams, and it was definitely as close as the rankings predicted. After winning the doubles point, Princeton found itself in a good position heading into singles play.

“Historically in the last few years, we win almost every time we win the doubles point,” Sell said. “It is a pretty good indicator of our success.”

Princeton, however, proceeded to lose five of six singles matches, but not without some closely fought three-set heartbreakers. Freshman No. 3 Taylor Marable, whose singles play has been strong through the last few matches, recorded the team’s only singles win. Princeton’s No. 70-ranked sophomore singles player Melissa Saiontz fell to Penn’s Ekaterina Kosminskaya.

Senior No. 2 Ivana King certainly challenged Penn’s Yulia Rivelis, losing the first set 7-5 and winning the second, but she ultimately faltered 6-2 in the third. There were similar bright moments in the matches of freshman No. 4 Rebecca Parks and sophomore No. 6 Sarah Huah, but they, too, fell to Penn. This match hinged on these three-set matches, and Princeton fell on the losing side of all three.

“One of the girls played the best match of her season, so we can’t be totally disappointed,” Sell said. “But this is not where we want to be. We let too many chances slip.”

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When both teams take on Brown and Yale, next weekend the men have a chance to expand on their Ivy League record and the women have a chance to rebound next weekend. The men will be at home for both matches, while the women are away next weekend before a three-match homestand.

“We have beaten Brown the last few years, but they are better this year, but we always seem to come out flat against Yale,” Sell said.

The conference season is still young, and both teams, despite the women’s loss to Penn, still have the potential for a good showing in Ivy League play.