While many students were relaxing at home or tanning on the sunny beaches of Florida, the men's tennis team sweated it out in California.
After a couple days of drilling, the men had their first face-off, going up against Loyola Marymount. Displaying the team's depth, the Green rolled over their foes in a 6-1 win. Gabe Sauerhoff '99, playing at the No. 1 spot, had the only loss, falling in straight sets 6-0, 6-3.
Dartmouth continued its bruising play by dismantling the College of the Desert 5-2.
Sauerhoff returned to form as he took the win at No. 2 in a 7-5 decision in the third. At the top spot, Erich Holzer '99 lost 6-2, 6-2.
The next test had the Green taking on a talented squad from University of San Diego. San Diego got the doubles point as they took two out of the three matches.
The big-serving tandem of Rob Simik '99 and Walter Brown '00 went up 7-4, but eventually fell in a tie-breaker against a resilient San Diego duo.
"Losing the doubles point we knew we had our work cut out for us," Coach Chuck Kinyon said. "Fighting back in typical Dartmouth fashion, we won at four and five, but dropped the No. 6 spot."
The Big Green faltered going into the singles matches. Sauerhoff and Holzer, at No. 1 and No. 2 respectively, fell in three to their opponents.
Down 0-3 in points, Dartmouth had to stage a tremendous comeback to get the win.
Co-Captain Matt Fuller '97 led the charge with a comeback victory.
He opened his match losing the first set 2-6. But Fuller rallied back to win the second and third sets, 6-2, 6-3.
Simik also put up a point for the Big Green as he took three sets to finish off his opponent. Freshmen big-gun Andy Evans had little difficulty as he won at the five spot in straight sets.
However, San Diego was able to get the last point and take the win, 4-3, as they won at No. 6.
"It was a great match, one that we might have won," Kinyon said. "But better [to] lose those close ones now and learn to be tougher when we get back to Hanover."
Undaunted by the tough loss the day before, the Big Green returned to the courts and upended the University of Iowa with a 5-2 victory.
Now 7-2 on the season, Dartmouth will return to Hanover after a match-up against Utah on Monday.
Summing up spring-break training, co-Captain Avery Rueb '98 quipped, "Our team is like a fine sponge cake, we might seem soft but we do the job. And we will do the job this season."
