Tennis: M. Saointz, Marable guide Princeton

The men’s and women’s tennis teams kicked off their spring seasons this past week.

The women’s tennis team played in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Kick-Off Weekend in Evanston, Ill., on Jan. 30 and 31, while the men’s tennis team began its campaign against Penn State on Jan. 24.

At the ITA Kick-Off Weekend, No. 45 Princeton (3-1) played No. 50 Denver (1-2) and No. 2 Northwestern (3-0). The Tigers beat Denver 5-2 but then fell to Northwestern 0-4.

“I thought that we competed very well as a team,” junior Blakely Ashley said. “We beat Denver, which was also ranked, so that was a big win for us. We faced Northwestern in the championship match, and they’re number two in the country. So that was a tough match, but all of us played really well.”

The first day began with Princeton pitted against Denver.

“This is only the second year they’ve held ITA indoors, and last year we lost in the first round, so this was an improvement that we won our first round this year,” Ashley said.

Sophomore Hilary Bartlett and junior Taylor Marable — ranked No. 16 in the ITA — started the weekend off with a bang, delivering Princeton’s first victory by defeating Denver’s top doubles team 8-4.

Despite the Tigers’ strong 3-0 lead after another doubles and singles win, Denver came back by picking up the third and first singles slots. With two matches left, the score was a close 3-2, and there was the unnerving possibility that Denver could stage a comeback win.

Princeton, it turned out, had nothing to worry about. Senior Melissa Saiontz’ singles win pushed the Tigers’ lead to 4-2 to guarantee another day in the tournament.

“The first match when we beat Denver was really exciting because we have new coaches this year, and it was just really exciting as a whole team to win our first big match against a ranked team,” Ashley said.

The second day of the tournament provided a tougher lineup.

Northwestern has an impressive roster that includes three ranked singles players and an entire squad of ranked doubles players.

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Northwestern held out on its own home ground with a clean 4-0 sweep. In each individual match, however, Princeton was able to put up some competition.

“It proved that we’re right up there with the top teams, so I think the coaches were pretty happy with our performance, but obviously next time we’d like to win,” Ashley said.

The women’s team has the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Championship next in Boston on Feb. 12.

“Last year we won Ivies, so there’s going to be some added pressure that we should dominate in ECACs, but I think that we’re pretty confident going into the tournament,” Ashley said.

The men’s team (0-1) lost 6-1 in its away match against Penn State (3-1).

Matches were tight and drawn out, won or lost on a small margin.

Both freshman Matija Pecotic and sophomore Yohei Shoji endured three sets before losing in tiebreakers.

Senior singles player Charlie Brosens picked up Princeton’s point by defeating Penn State’s Jason Lee.

The men’s team will also head to the ECAC Championships in New Haven, Conn., on Feb. 12.

Equally impressive for both the men’s and women’s teams is that with such a tight roster — the women’s team only has seven players — Princeton athletes have the skill and endurance to play both doubles and singles games all in the same day.

On the men’s team, Pecotic and freshman Matt Siow stepped up to play both doubles and singles matches for their first time.

The youthful Tigers will look to build on their performance against Penn State in the coming weeks.