Trading in the fall foliage of Hanover, N.H. for the bright lights of New York City, Dartmouth men's tennis traveled to the National Tennis Center this weekend for the ECAC Tournament.
Though the Big Green would ultimately leave Flushing Meadows with two wins in three matches, tournament play opened up with a little bit of heartbreak. Hanover's finest took on the University of Pennsylvania in the first round and quickly drew first blood behind co-captain David Webb '05's 6-4, 6-3 first singles victory. Third singles Jeff Schechtman '08 followed suit, putting together a straight set victory of his own, 6-4, 7-6.
On the doubles side, Schechtman, partnered with Priya Sahu '05, struck again, this time winning 8-2 over Penn's Jimmy Fairbanks and Anthony Pu. Sophomores Dave Waslen and Steve McGaughey also came out winners, pulling out an 8-3 win at third doubles.
However, that was where Penn would draw the line. Stealing a pair of hard-fought three-set matches from McGaughey and co-captain Andres Reyes '05, the Quakers handed the Big Green a brutal 4-3 defeat.
"Everybody was pretty devastated after the Penn match," Reyes said, summing up his teammates' reaction to the narrow loss.
Fortunately, when Dartmouth matched up against St. Joseph the next morning, the devastation was far behind them. Mark Brodie '07 and Sahu rebounded from disappointing performances a day earlier with a couple of big wins as the Big Green rolled to a comfortable 5-2 victory.
The Big Green attempted to carry their newfound momentum into Sunday's match against historically weak Stony Brook University. However, the Seawolves, led by nationally ranked transfer student Yuri Krejci, had other plans.
Krejci, a recent Division II national champion from BYU-Hawaii, burned Dartmouth twice, teaming with Tal Meir to take first doubles and narrowly overcome Webb 7-5, 7-6 in the singles.
Though the two losses undoubtedly stung, they were not enough to put the Big Green away. Dartmouth clawed its way to a 3-3 split in singles play, while Logan West '05 and Sahu took care of business at the third doubles slot. When all was said and done, the Big Green walked away with a well-deserved 4-3 win.
Webb, Reyes, and Schechtman -- who went 6-0 throughout the tournament -- will resume action Oct. 22, representing Dartmouth at the ITA Regionals in Virginia Tech. The rest of the team will have to wait for the Big Green Invitational on Nov. 6.
