Men and women open Ivy play with wins over Penn

The men’s and women’s tennis teams played Penn on Saturday to open their Ivy League season. Both teams got off to a good start against the Quakers as the men’s team won 4-3, and the women’s team 6-1.

The men’s team, ranked 52nd in the nation, came out with the lead early on as the third doubles combination of junior Augie Bloom and senior Matt Siow defeated Penn’s Jeremy Court and Kyle Roth. Bloom and Siow captured an early break point to take the lead 5-2 and never let up to take the win with a score of 8-2. The first doubles combination of senior Matija Pecotic and sophomore Zack McCourt played strong tennis against Penn’s Nicola Kocovic and Mark Milbrandt to seal the doubles point with another score of 8-2. On court two, junior Dan Davies and senior Matt Spindler kept the game close until 5-4, when the two took the lead against the Quakers to sweep the doubles matches with a score of 8-5.

The singles matches started off very close, with no team gaining an advantage of more than a point. However, Princeton showed some confidence after freshman Jonathan Carcione took the first set of the singles lineup to win 6-4. With this small lead, Pecotic finished his match quickly with a solid 6-3, 6-4 win. Spindler also triumphed, barely winning a close 7-6 first set but dominating in the second, winning 6-0. With these two wins by the seniors, the Tigers were up 3-0 — one point away from clinching the win.

With McCourt down a set and 5-2 and Bloom down a set and 4-3, however, the Tigers looked to either Carcione or junior Dan Richardson to clinch the win. With a strong second set, Carcione won 6-4.

Once it was too late to win, Penn made it close, taking the next three singles matches to make the final score 4-3.

The women’s team, ranked 65th in the nation, traveled to Penn to open their Ivy season. Princeton lost its first doubles match as sophomore Joan Cannon and freshman Emily Hahn fell 8-5. However, the Tigers rallied back to win the next two doubles matches. The third doubles team of senior Monica Chow and sophomore Katie Goepel won first with a tight 9-7 victory, and the second team of junior Katherine Flanigan and sophomore Lindsay Graff beat the Quakers to clinch the doubles point with a score of 8-6.

The women dominated the singles competition, only allowing the Quakers one point. Graff ran away with the first singles position, winning her match easily 6-2, 6-0. Cannon followed suit at sixth singles, also winning all but two games to win 6-1, 6-1.

The only loss for Princeton came at third singles, as Chow fell to Penn’s Sonya Latycheva 6-2, 6-3. A short time later, however, the Tigers won when Hahn took the fourth singles match 6-2, 6-4.

Flanigan took her match with a similar score of 6-3, 6-2. The fourth singles match was close and went to a third set, but Goepel pulled out a 7-6 in the tiebreaker to improve the Tigers’ win with a score of 2-6, 6-2, 7-6(6) to wrap up a 6-1 Princeton victory.

Both the men and women will play Yale and Brown next weekend, with the women at home at Lenz Tennis Center and the men on the road. Both teams will play highly anticipated matchups as the No. 52 men will play the No. 56 Yale team, while the No. 65 women will be the underdogs as they take on the No. 36 Bulldogs.