Despite the chilly Saturday afternoon, the men's tennis team managed to heat up the courts across from Topliff as they captured two team victories, defeating Boston University 5-2 in the morning and trampling the University of Vermont 7-0 later that afternoon.
The Big Green were led by Jim Rich '96, who has an injured rotator cuff and was unable to play at the Yale tournament last weekend. However, Rich showed no pain on Saturday as he gave up only seven games in his two wins at flight one singles.
"We've worked harder this pre-season than we've ever worked," Rich commented. "We come in at a disadvantage because of our lack of match situations, but we also come in in better condition because we do a lot of running and drilling."
Because of Dartmouth's late starting date, the men often miss valuable match play time, which is desperately needed to be competitive in tennis. Yet with two matches and one tournament under their belts, the Big Green feel they have quite a momentum going.
Captain Kurt Bruggeman '95 and Matt Fuller '97 captured the A doubles title at the Yale tournament two weekends ago against teams from Harvard, Yale, Brown, Temple, Boston College, and Providence. The two players have been hot since then.
"I'm psyched about how well Kurt and Matt are playing doubles," Coach Chuck Kinyon said. "They are riding high on their win last week at Yale."
In singles at Yale, Fuller also impressively knocked off the number three player from Harvard before falling in the A division, while Bruggeman lost a close match in the finals of the B division.
"Kurt and Matt played low in our line up last year but have improved a lot," Holden Spaht '96 said. "They have done a good job and are still playing really well."
With a particularly young team, Dartmouth knows that giving the younger and less experienced players more competition at the varsity level will be a must if they hope to improve.
"We have a lot of players who need to play a lot of matches to get some competition like this while getting some needed teaching, too," Kinyon said. "In a very short period we try to get in shape, number one, and then we want to fill holes in games making individual improvements."
Returning letter winners Rich, Spaht and Bruggeman will hold up the strong top end of the Dartmouth line up and will look to help their teammates emerge into quality Division I players.
"We are really young, but our top four players have a lot of experience," Rich said.
"The lower players have made a lot of improvement, but they are going to need to pick up their level . . . and we're all going to need to work even harder."
One addition to the '94 Dartmouth squad is Avery Ruch '98, who has earned a starting position on the Big Green's squad despite his collegiate inexperience.
"It's always nerve racking for the freshmen who come in," Kinyon said. "They have to see where they fit in on the team, where they fit in Division I tennis, not to mention where they fit in socially. It's difficult to do all those things."
Because of their late start, the Big Green have been unable to set a definite line up for the ECAC tournament this weekend.
"It's difficult to set up a line up because of the inner-squad competition," Kinyon said. "It's how we play against other teams, not how we play against each other. I want them all to grow as players and confidence is a big part of that."
Despite being an usually slow starting team in the fall, the Big Green players have set high goals for the ECAC's and feel prepared to compete in the 16-team tournament.
"Because of our late start, we have typically done poorly relative to our final standing," Kinyon said. "Given our youth, I think we're as ready as we're going to be."
The Big Green have set definite goals for this weekend, though, and look to make an impact in the Eastern conference.
"We would like to get one good win over an Ivy team and it's conceivable if we play well," Spaht said. "We need to get settled and get a few matches under our belt."
