The men's tennis team continued to struggle this weekend, losing two more Ivy League matches. After dropping matches to Brown (19-4) on Friday and Yale (5-13) on Sunday, the team moved to 0-6 in conference play and 8-13 overall. Overmatched on both occasions, the Big Green only came away with one doubles win and two singles wins against Yale and none against Brown.
For Friday's match against Brown, which is ranked 36th nationally, the Big Green knew it would be in for a tough outing. Its expectations were met, and Dartmouth was swept 7-0.
"Ivy season has been kind of brutal so far," said co-captain Dave Webb '05.
Dave Waslen '07 provided the team's best chances to capture points. Along with Steve McGaughey '07 at doubles, the two sophomores played their opponents very tough but lost 9-8 at the No. 2 doubles spot. Waslen was again narrowly defeated in singles play, where he lost 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 at second singles. He was the only player to take a match into the third set.
"Losing sucks," Mark Brodie '07 commented on the team's weekend. "There's nothing else to say about that."
Play improved against Yale, but the Big Green was still unable to come away with the win and lost 5-2. In doubles play, Waslen and McGaughey played another solid match and were able to sneak away with a 9-8 win. However, the other doubles duos did not share the same success, and Yale won the point with wins at the first and third spots.
Logan West '05 and Priya Sahu '05 were given an opportunity to play at the No. 3 doubles spot because the usual duo of Brodie and Jeff Schechtman '08 have been struggling lately. They were unable to capitalize, though, and lost 8-3.
Dartmouth saw its best success of the weekend at singles play against Yale. Waslen came away with another win at the No. 2 spot, winning 6-2, 7-6. Brodie also played well and won 7-5, 4-6 (7). At sixth singles, Sahu lost a close match 7-5, 6-4.
Waslen has stepped up his game of late and has been one of the few on the team to get wins during Ivy play. In a BlitzMail to Dartmouth tennis fans announcing the score of the Yale match, Tennis Coach Charles Kinyon described Waslen's play as the "sunshine" of their losing streak.
"I guess you could say that I'm satisfied with the way I'm playing," Waslen said. "It's nice to get some wins individually, but losing overall as a team over and over has been hard to take."
With one more match left to go against Harvard at home on Wednesday, the team is really concentrating on ending the season on a high note and winning an Ivy League match.
"With one more match to go," Webb said, "we are just trying to stay positive and prepare to play like we have nothing to lose."
The team was in consensus that it needed to improve confidence.
"It seems like some people aren't walking into their matches expecting to win," Waslen commented. "Confidence is crucial; you need to convince yourself that no matter what happens in the match, you'll get the W at the end of the day."
Wednesday is also the last match for the seniors, and they are looking for a home crowd to support them.
"It'll be sad to be playing next to the seniors for the last time," Waslen added. "They're all great guys."
