Tennis: Women defeated in final of ECAC Championship

While the women’s team met with success early before being edged out by Yale, the men’s team suffered an early setback to Boston College before rebounding to defeat Dartmouth in the consolation match.

The ECAC Championship represented an opportunity for both teams to watch their Ivy League rivals and see how they will fare in league play.

“Generally, my teammates and I see this tournament as an opportunity to scout out the other Ivy League teams and to test ourselves in competitive matches against some of our biggest rivals,” freshman Hilary Bartlett said. “Of course, winning this tournament would be a huge confidence booster before the start of Ivy season, but the real prize is still winning the Ivy League title.”

The women’s tennis team proved at last weekend’s tournament that it stacks up well against its Ivy foes. The Tigers opened their tournament against Columbia, having little trouble closing out the Lions 6-1. Princeton took the first five singles points with two-set victories from Bartlett, freshman Lauren McHale, sophomores Taylor Marable and Blakely Ashley and junior Sarah Huah. Senior Kelly Stewart fell in a tough three-set match to Columbia’s Marlena Hall. In doubles competition, the pair of Bartlett and Marable defeated the Columbia tandem of Carling Donovan and Natasha Makarova by a score of 8-2.

With a comfortable victory over Columbia under its belt, Princeton carried momentum into its second-round match against Brown.

“Our performance against Columbia was definitely a great way to start the weekend,” Bartlett said. “Nobody on the team doubted that we would match up well against Columbia, but winning as convincingly as we did definitely helped get the jitters out before playing Brown. We came out against Brown with confidence and a lot of positive energy that undoubtedly helped us get the win.”

In the match against Brown, Bartlett, Marable and Ashley recorded wins in both singles and doubles competition, while McHale, freshman Rachel Saiontz and sopohomore Rebecca Parks contributed points in singles competition. Still, the 7-0 score is slightly misleading, as many of Princeton’s second-round matches were closer than many of its first-round matches.

“Even though we swept Brown 7-0, we still had a few pretty close matches. What was most exciting today was how the team was able to perform so well in key pressure situations,” Bartlett said. “Ashley’s match against [Brown’s Julie Flanzer] was the longest of the day, with [Ashley] pulling out the win 10-4 in the third-set super-tiebreaker.”

On Friday, the men’s team struggled in its opening match against BC, falling 5-2. Senior Alex Vuckovic and sophomore Alex Faust picked up Princeton’s two singles wins in the third and fifth positions, respectively. BC swept the three matches in doubles competition and the four other matches in singles competition to claim the overall victory.

The Tigers didn’t dwell upon this loss, however, and they came out focused for the consolation match with Dartmouth the next day.

In the men’s second match against Dartmouth, the Tigers capitalized on the strength of their top three singles players, winning those three points behind strong efforts from Vuckovic, senior Peter Capkovic and junior George Carpeni. In doubles, the Tigers shook off their first doubles loss with a win from the tandem of sophomore Ryan Kim and junior Ilya Trubov. A second doubles victory from Carpeni and freshman Yohei Shoji sealed the doubles point for Princeton.

The Princeton women lost 4-3 to Yale in a heartbreaker on Sunday. Despite a doubles victory from the pair of McHale and Saiontz, Yale picked up wins in the other two doubles matches, allowing them to take the doubles point. In singles, McHale, Saiontz and Ashley all pulled out tough wins. McHale rebounded from a 3-0 deficit in the third set to win, while Saiontz lost her first set against Yale’s Stevi Petrelli but cruised from there to a 3-6, 6-1, 6-3 victory. Bartlett lost the deciding match to Jesse Rhee 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4).