The Big Green's men racketeers have proven themselves a force of contention in the ECAC and the Ivy League after a strong performance at the Yale Invitational over the weekend.
While Mother Nature demonstrates her omnipotence by dropping temperatures in the New England area and subsequently changing deciduous tree leaves to magnificent autumn reds, oranges and yellows, the thinking man resultantly understands the futility of his struggles against forces greater than himself. The man is powerless to assert any sort of free will or volition in a world in which he has no power.
Nonetheless, the collective effort of the Dartmouth tennis squad through intense training, practice sessions and a great showing at the Yale Invitational has caused things to heat up a little bit on the Hanover plain. Thus the thought paradigm of natural force as the deciding factor has effectively been turned on its head.
The Yale Invitational provided the Green with a great opportunity to gauge its chances of a title run in the Ivy League by going toe-to-toe with three other Ivy teams: Yale, Columbia and Cornell.
"After seeing some teammates play over the weekend, I am very optimistic that we can be very competitive come Ivy Season," Borko Kereshi '04 said.
More immediately, however, the Yale tournament gave the Green a strong foundation of confidence going into the ECACs next weekend, which has been the team's goal in the last four weeks of training and competition.
The duo of Neal Bobba '04 and Drew Dinkmeyer '04 represented the Green in the flight-A singles. Dinkmeyer had a disappointing showing with losses to Alan Butenko of Columbia and Yale's Ryan Murphy on Saturday.
Feeling his game peaking at just the right time, Bobba reached his second straight final, after winning the Brown tournament the previous weekend. After a routine win over Yoku Kiuchi of Columbia at 6-3, 6-0, Bobba triumphed in a tough match with Yale's Andrew Rosenfeld.
The Bulldog retired late in the second set because of intense lactic acid buildup that resulted in muscle cramping due to the vigorous physical requirements of such an intense match.
Bobba's recent play prompted head coach Chuck Kinyon to label him as "Mr. Clutch for the Big Green." On Sunday, a nagging ankle caused Bobba to retire tied at one in the first set as a precautionary measure aimed at protecting the ailment for next week's ECACs.
Borko Kereshi and Jesse Paer, both part of the dominant '04 contingent on the team, swung for Dartmouth in the flight-B singles.
Kereshi opened things up with a tight loss to Milox Gutxowski of Yale at 5-7, 5-7. He will be carrying a full head of steam next weekend with a pair of wins over Cornell's Mike Schlappigg and Arvinda Newman.
Paer got off to an auspicious start with a win over Columbia's Scott Robbins at 7-5, 6-1, but he could not duplicate the first match's rhythm against Yale's John Lu or Rachive Emmeny of Cornell in two losses.
Freshman Raj Shrestha found his form after dropping his first two matches to Columbia's Aleidin Sham and Yale's Matt Feldman with a win over Ricky Butenko of Columbia in flight-C singles action. In the same division, Andres Reyes got things started off with a win over Vinay Bhampdpati of Columbia, but he lost a pair of grueling matches to end his weekend.
The play of David Webb '05 proved to be the biggest highlight for the Green in singles action over the weekend.
After two routine wins, Webb battled through to win a tough match at 7-5 in the third with Columbia's Jimmy More to bring home the Flight D singles title.
Webb's sophomore comrade Logan West could not find the same success, losing a pair of matches to the Yale faction.
The Dartmouth racketeers clicked on all cylinders in doubles action with dominating performances by each team, sweeping through each match. Dinkmeyer and Bobba were like poetry in motion on the court as they earned an 8-4 win over Bhamidpatti and Butenko of Columbia in flight-A action.
The tandem of Paerand Kereshi would not be outshined by their teammates in the same division, as they won both of their matches at 8-4 over Murphy and arons of Yale and Paltrowitz and McKeon of Cornell.
Flight-B doubles action produced exact replication of Dartmouth dominion, with Reyes and Webb winning matches over the hometown Yale contingent at 8-6 and 8-1 respectively. The other Big Green team of Priya Sahu '05 and Raj Shrestha were victorious over opponents from Columbia.
With solid play in both singles and doubles action at all positions, the Green represents a worthy adversary to any team going into next weekend's play at the ECACs.
Reflecting on the Yale Invitational, Neal Bobba said, "I thought everyone was competitive we were right there with the rest of the teams, which will hopefully translate into success next weekend."
As the natural forces independently continue to manifest themselves in the inception of fall and the metamorphosis of Dartmouth's surroundings, the dominating question still remains: Can the Big Green men's tennis team continue its battle with the most prolific force of all, with the energy and sense of hype they produce out-competing the energy of the biosphere?
