Dartmouth men's tennis team opened its season this weekend in South Carolina with a shaky start, suffering two losses.
On Saturday the Big Green lost a close match 4-3 to the Furman Paladins (2-3). Sunday's match proved to be less competitive, as the Clemson Tigers (4-0) dominated to shut out the Big Green 7-0. Both Furman and Clemson won both their matches over the weekend.
Starting the Furman event by dropping all three doubles matches, the Big Green dug itself into a very deep and dark hole. The team almost recovered to salvage a win, though, and split the six singles matches.
Co-captain David Webb '05, David Waslen '07 and Mark Brodie '07 got the three Dartmouth victories.
Webb defeated Furman's ace, Allen Simmons, 6-4, 6-1. Jeff Schechtman '08 almost had the chance to give Dartmouth its fourth win but after fighting off 10 match points lost to Ben Pauluhn 6-4, 7-6 (6).
"It was a tough loss for us," Webb said on the disappointing end to the comeback, "but we came away with a positive outlook and a good sense of energy."
The next day's match against Clemson ended the weekend on a down note, with the Big Green losing all but one match.
The Tigers took all six singles matches; no match was taken to the third set. Dartmouth's only victory came courtesy of doubles partners Dave Waslen and Steve McGaughey '07, who won 9-8 (4) over Clemson's Ryan Cook and Clint Boling.
"The Clemson match was tough," Webb added after the loss Sunday. "They were a great team that put a lot of pressure on us."
Dartmouth's home opener is this Sunday at the Boss Tennis Center against Boston College. The Big Green hopes to secure its first win against the Eagles, who will be coming off a Saturday match versus Clemson.
