With only one player graduating from last year's championship team, Dartmouth men's tennis is looking to bring home another Ivy title. A dominant Harvard squad ranked 18th in the country stands in Dartmouth's road to glory, and without team leader Matt Fuller '97, the task will be far from easy.
This past weekend, the Green traveled down to Princeton for the ECAC where the team was seeded an impressive third. Cornell stood as the first challenge to Dartmouth, but in the end, they didn't put up much of a fight. The Green sweep them 7-0. With the win, Dartmouth moved up into the quarterfinals, facing a talented and experienced Yale squad.
The Green started off in the black as the #1 and #2 doubles teams won their matches. In singles, Avery Rueb '98 and Rob Simik '99 were off the court quickly as they won in straight sets. After winning the first set, Andy Evans '01 had to retire because of a cramp. Fellow freshman Rob Chen '01 fell in a close match 5-6,6-7. With the Big Green up 3-2, a win depended on Erich Holzer '99 and Gabe Sauerhoff '99. Sauerhoff , the team's top player, finally fell in a tight third set where he lost 5-7. With a team victory resting on Holzer's match, he hung on for as long as he could. The marathon match ended 11-9 in Yale's favor, giving the Eli's a 4-3 win and a semifinal berth.
"We came very close to having one of the best ECAC tournaments ever." Coach Chuck Kinyon said. "Actually one point from the semis -- and I think we would have matched up very well with Virginia Tech."
On Sunday, Dartmouth took the court to face Columbia in a final consolation match. With the Green seizing the doubles point, Dartmouth had the edge. But then, top gun Sauerhoff was forced to sit out his match, shifting everyone a spot higher. Dartmouth was never able to get comfortable and lost the match 5-2 as freshmen Harlan Thompson '01 had the sole singles victory. The Green finish the ECAC tournament seventh overall.
"The tournament was a total disappointment," Rueb said, "Every member of the team lacked the conditioning and the overall toughness to open the doors. We had our opportunities, but no one was ready to grab them. To prepare for the spring season, the team must make some serious choices. Are we willing to give everything we've got for the title, or are we going to just sit idly by as other teams beat us to a pulp as was the case this past weekend? It is a choice that each team member must seriously contemplate."
The Big Green saw their first test of the season when they traveled down to New Haven for the Yale Invitational tournament two weeks ago. The tournament format had ten of the Green's top players, including four freshmen, dueling in four flights.
Sauerhoff, playing in the A flight, went three sets against Andrew Tang of Yale where Sauerhoff topped him 6-4,4-6,6-1. But the big server couldn't keep rolling as he dropped his next match in two.
Holzer opened his first A-flight match with a two set lost, but he then came back in the second set to drop his dominant Crimson opponent, 6-2, 3-6, 6-1. Holzer's run stopped after Joe Green of Harvard took Holzer in a close three-set matchup.
