Sophomore Matija Pecotic earned a victory over Monmouth’s Lawrence Heads after Heads retired when Pecotic took a 5-0 lead in the third set. Junior Coleman Crutchfield was also victorious in singles, defeating Joris Van Eck of Marist in a back-and-forth match by a score of 6-1, 1-6, 6-4.
In doubles play, sophomore Michael Lin and senior Ryan Kim defeated Columbia’s Cyril Bucher and Tizan Bucher 8-6. Crutchfield and junior Ravi Yegya-Raman also picked up a victory in doubles against Andrew Denny and Mark Hemy of Farleigh Dickinson University, 8-4.
Crutchfield and Yegya-Raman continued their success on Saturday. Yegya-Raman picked up two singles victories in convincing fashion, dominating David Sherwood of Monmouth 6-1, 6-0 and defeating Matty Najfeld of St. John’s in straight sets, 7-6, 6-1. Crutchfield also defeated Dom Hemy of FDU in straight sets, 6-1, 6-4.
Pecotic played a tight match against Ivan Turudic of Penn but fell short 6-2, 1-6, (13-11).
“I had a very close match with [Turudic], who won the final quite easily,” Pecotic said. “Despite not playing my best match, I felt that I have a good chance to have a good match with him in the future, so that gives me confidence.”
Pecotic, who was the defending champion of the tournament’s singles A flight, has not had as great a fall season as last year but said he still feels he is benefitting from the extra challenge and training for the spring season.
“I feel like the training has been altered a little bit, and that has made us better physically prepared on court,” Pecotic said. “I feel fitter and quicker on the court, but personally I don’t think I’ve had a very successful fall season relative to last year ... I have to take it match by match, if not point by point, because I’m in that situation right now, but that doesn’t put me off. It’s just a different set of challenges this fall versus last fall, and hopefully I’ll come out on the better end of that challenge.”
Yegya-Raman and Crutchfield continued to win on the last day of the tournament, capturing the B doubles flight by defeating Dom Hemy and Yuri Gricheno of FDU 9-7. Yegya-Raman also dominated the B singles consolation final by beating Columbia’s Sam Gelb 6-2, 6-0. Crutchfield did not enjoy similar success in the A singles consolation final, falling to Michael Lampa of St. John’s 7-5, 7-6(3).
Though the Tigers did not experience the same success in this tournament as they did last year, the competition still revealed that Princeton looks to be competitive for the Ivy League crown in the spring and has considerable depth with the addition of three freshmen.
“[The freshmen] are going to be very key and very crucial in the rest of our season,” Pecotic said. “I think they’re all capable of playing in the lineup — some quite high up in the lineup — in both singles and doubles. They’re getting used to our system and us playing with them. They’ve understood how the team is working and what we’re aiming towards, and they’re taking it very seriously, and that makes us take it very seriously. If we continue to stay motivated and injury-free, we’re looking to be a very strong team for the rest of the year.”
The fall season concludes for the men’s team this weekend when it heads to New Haven, Conn., to compete in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association regional championships.
Members of the women’s team also competed this weekend, as junior Hilary Bartlett and senior Taylor Marable traveled to the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif., to compete in the ITA All-America tournament. The duo competed on Thursday as the No. 8 doubles pair, falling to No. 45 Morgan Frank and Nazari Urbina of Texas A&M 8-6. No. 49 Bartlett also lost in singles to No. 10 Nina Secerbegovic of Baylor 6-4, 6-4.
Bartlett is also a staff writer for The Daily Princetonian.
The following day Bartlett and Marable fell in the doubles consolation bracket, losing to No. 12 Lindsey Hardenbergh and Erin Vierra of Virginia 8-3. Bartlett also competed in the singles consolation draw, losing to Utah’s Anastasia Putlina in three sets, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4.
The women’s team will close out the fall season next weekend at the ITA regional championships at Dartmouth in Hanover, N.H.
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