Recruits live up to the hype

Almost every member of the women’s roster saw playing time in the opening matches of the season.

Princeton’s closest matchup this weekend was against Virginia Tech. The Tigers went 6-5 in singles matches, while the teams ended even in doubles matches with four wins apiece.

Against Buffalo, the Tigers won seven singles matches and lost three. Princeton dominated in doubles play, dropping only one of its matchups. The women also faced Penn in a preview of future Ivy play and defeated the Quakers in all three of their doubles matches.

“It was great to get out and play for the first time,” sophomore Taylor Marable said. “Really, the fall is just fun because it’s an opportunity to get out there.”

Marable also noted the strong contributions from the freshmen. She paired up with freshman Hilary Bartlett to rack up a 3-1 doubles record, while Bartlett split her singles matches 1-1.

Freshman Lauren McHale ? who played in U.S. Open qualifying matches in the days before coming to Princeton ? recorded a 5-1 singles and doubles record with only one loss at the hands of Virginia Tech’s Inga Beerman.

The Tigers’ returning No. 1, junior Melissa Saiontz, also suffered her only singles loss at the hands of Beerman.

Saiontz’ younger sister, freshman Rachel Saiontz, went 5-1 with a single doubles loss.

The men’s team had a rougher weekend that was highlighted by its ongoing struggles with injuries.

Princeton, who only brought six players to the tournament, joined Pepperdine’s small team for the weekend’s matches. The joint effort proved successful on Friday as the Tigers and the Waves defeated N.C. State.

Princeton’s top four players combined to dominate in doubles play. Seniors Peter Capkovic and Alex Vuckovic fought off the Wolfpack in a tight 9-8 (8) doubles win, while senior Alex Krueger-Wyman and junior George Carpeni won 8-6.

Krueger-Wyman and Carpeni also picked up come-from-behind singles victories. Sophomore Ryan Kim played an extremely close match as well, ultimately losing in a third-set tiebreak, 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 (5).

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The Tigers could not carry their success through the weekend, however. Against Penn State on Saturday, Princeton dropped both of its doubles matches and all five singles matches. The winless trend continued Sunday against Alabama.

The Tigers’ frustration can be partly attributed to the strength of their opponents. All three of their opponents were ranked in the top 60 nationally at the end of last season.

“These are all top teams,” Krueger-Wyman said. “We had a lot of close matches, but it still was not a great result.”

The health of the team has also played a significant role. While Krueger-Wyman is recovering from last spring’s knee surgery, Vuckovic is trying to rehabilitate a stress fracture in his back. At least three other players on the team are recovering from injuries as well.

Princeton can find hope in some of the tight matches it played against top teams. Against Penn State, for example, Capkovic took his match to three sets, the first of which ended in a close tiebreaker.

Pepperdine sophomore Alex Faust kept it tight on Sunday with Alabama’s Andrew Felsenthal. After dropping the first set 7-5, Faust came back to take the second set by the same margin. Faust couldn’t close the deal in the tiebreaking third set, however, and lost by a final score of 7-5, 5-7 (10-7). Carpeni also took his match to three sets.

“The whole idea of this tournament was to get people back in shape for match play,” Krueger-Wyman said. “The purpose was to get us back in the swing of things, and in that sense it sort of did its job.”