Saturday afternoon the men's tennis team looked to keep its momentum gained from last weekend's wins over Pennsylvania and Columbia but unfortunately came up one point short of doing so.
In their first away trip since break, the Big Green could not overcome the new surroundings and fell to Princeton in a tight 4-3 match.
"It was really windy outside," Captain Kurt Bruggeman '95 said. "Those were new conditions for us since we've been used to playing at Leverone. It was tough being outside."
Dartmouth, which was able to practice outdoors only one day last week because of the Hanover weather, played outdoors Friday at Navy, but the Big Green dominated there with few challenges. "It was windy there, too, but Navy isn't as strong as they used to be," Bruggeman said. "It was a pretty quick match."
And quick it was. Dartmouth swept the doubles and captured five straight-set singles victories to win the match 6-1. Number-one player Jim Rich '96 lost a tough three set match 6-0, 2-6, 3-6.
Against the Tigers, Dartmouth's doubles proved once again to be a strong dimension of this year's team. The Big Green won two 9-8 pro-sets in tiebreakers, while the third doubles team won a tight 8-6 match.
"Things went well for us at the beginning," Bruggeman said. "We had three really close doubles matches, but we won all of them, so all we had to do was split the singles. I think that everyone put in his best effort. They just outplayed us."
The Big Green earned singles points from Avery Rueb '98 and Matthew Fuller '97.
Dartmouth, now 5-1 in the EITA, looks to redeem itself at home this weekend against Yale on Friday and Brown on Saturday. With an undefeated Harvard team also in sight next Tuesday, the Big Green have a busy eight days ahead of them. "Hopefully this week, we can get outside and practice for the upcoming matches," Bruggeman said. "We need to look to finish our last four matches strong."
