Women earn tough wins, injury-racked men swept

On Friday, the women’s team (10-8 overall, 3-2 Ivy League) knocked off No. 72 Dartmouth (14-3, 2-2) by a convincing 5-2 margin. The squad continued on Saturday to play strongly against Harvard (2-14, 2-2), winning 4-3. The men’s team (9-9, 1-4), without the help of several of its normal starters, fell to Dartmouth (8-10, 1-3) for the first time in recent memory, 5-2, while Saturday brought a 6-1 loss to Harvard (12-6, 4-0).

The women, whose start to the Ivy League season was somewhat inconsistent, put it all together in their match against Dartmouth. The score may make it seem like the Tigers commanded the match, but the women had to earn their victory with three three-set victories. Princeton started the match in good shape by winning all three doubles matchups to easily secure the doubles point. Freshman No. 3 Taylor Marable, currently perfect in singles play for the Ivy League season, came back from losing the first set 6-3 to win the next two, 6-3, 6-4. After two close sets, sophomore No. 5 Sarah Huah finished her day strong with a 6-2 third set. The overall match was clinched by freshman No. 6 Sarah Hoffman with her own third-set 6-2 win.

The women also hit their stride against Harvard to secure a winning conference record for the first time this season. After Princeton won the doubles point, senior No. 2 Ivana King finished off her opponent with a commanding 6-0, 6-1 victory.

Marable improved her Ivy League record to 5-0 in a decisive two-set victory that clinched the match for Princeton. The team’s 3-2 Ivy record is third-best in the league.

The men had a difficult match against Dartmouth, a squad the Tigers would generally face with confidence if there weren’t several key players sidelined with nagging injuries. Princeton started off by losing the doubles point, 2-1. Though there were some bright spots in the wins of sophomore No. 2 George Carpeni and freshman No. 3 Ryan Kim, this would not nearly make up for the rest of the team being injured or playing through injury.

Though sophomore Charlie Brosens, sophomore Ilya Trubov and junior No. 1 Peter Capkovic all returned to the lineup after minor injuries last weekend, each struggled to find his groove and lost all of his sets by 6-3 or worse.

The Harvard match proved to be a step up for the Tigers, even if the score does not reflect strong play, as Princeton sat many of the returning injured players from the day before because of their ineffective outings against Dartmouth. While Capkovic won a thriller featuring a 17-15 tiebreak at No. 1 singles, the rest of the team could not fully pick up the slack of losing the normal starters.

“You always want to play to your potential even if you don’t win, and I think the team did against Harvard,” head coach Glen Michibata said. “You can’t ask much more than that. I was happy all around; Harvard was just better that day.”

Princeton did not simply lie down, as the Tigers forced their opponent to win a seventh game in sets in four of the singles matches, but it simply was not enough.

Carpeni stayed in a match with Harvard’s only nationally ranked player but lost 7-5, 6-4.Kim had a solid chance at beating his opponent, but as play moved indoors due to rain, the change in surface gave Harvard the advantage, as Kim lost, 6-4, 7-6.

“At full strength, I thought earlier in the season that we would win the Ivy League,” Michibata said. “With the same lineup against Harvard, we have a shot at both of our final matches. They just depend on our injury status.”

Both the men and women face off against Columbia on Friday and Cornell on Sunday, alternating home and away matches. The Cornell match marks the close of the spring regular season for both teams.