Men's tennis opened Ivy League play this weekend with two losses. On Friday the Big Green was dominated by the Columbia Lions (13-2), losing 6-1, and on Saturday they lost a very close match to the Cornell Big Red (9-8) 5-2. The two losses brought the team to 8-9 overall.
For the first time this season the weather allowed for play outside on the Topliff tennis courts. The competition has been tough for the Green outside. Including their trip to South Carolina to start the season, spring break, and now this past weekend, they are only 2-7 outside.
"I don't think it has anything to do with making the transition from inside to outside," said co-captain Andres Reyes '05. "We play much tougher teams outdoors than we do indoors which accounts for our weaker outdoor record"
Play against Columbia did not start poorly despite ending in a loss. In fact, for the first time this season, the Big Green won the doubles point without securing the overall victory. Dave Waslen '07 and Steve McGaughey '07 won at the number two spot 8-3 and Mark Brodie '07 and Jeff Schechtman '08 won at the number three spot 8-5.
After the doubles matches ended, the Big Green was only able to win one set. In the number one singles match, co-captain Dave Webb '05 took his match into the third set before losing 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.
"The league is very tough this year. An example of that is Columbia's victory over Harvard on Saturday following our Friday match," coach Charles Kinyon later said. "Harvard has been ranked in the top 30 nationally all season."
Against Cornell, the Big Green was much more competitive and almost came away with the win. The number one and two doubles duos played very tough. Webb and Reyes lost 8-5 at the number one spot in a very close match and Waslen and Mcgaughey won again at the number two spot, playing hard to preserve a 9-8 win.
The number three duo of Brodie and Schechtman struggled however, losing 9-8.
"Jeff [Schechtman] has struggled for sometime now. His nagging injuries and lack of confidence has been difficult to overcome," Kinyon said. All we can do is to continue to be supportive and work at his game. I have seen what a terrific player Jeff can be this past fall and I am confident that player will reappear at any time."
Schechtman's troubles continued in the singles matches, losing 6-2, 6-3. Brodie was also unable to come away with a win and dropped the number four match 6-3, 6-4.
"I played very mediocre," Brodie commented. "We only have seven Ivy League matches and you want to play your best. I was very disappointed."
At the top two spots, Webb and Waslen brought Dartmouth back into the match; they both won their matches in consecutive sets. For Waslen, the win was his first since spring break. He missed last week's match against Middlebury attending a family matter.
With the score at 3-2, Dartmouth was depending on both McGaughey and Reyes to win their matches. Reyes was able to push his match into the third set before he lost 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 in one of the most intense and exciting matches of the year. The crowd was extremely supportive and almost pushed Reyes to the victory.
"All our Ivy League matches are as intense as today was." Reyes said.
Reyes's opponent Tongle Yu echoed his sentiment: "I know every time I come to Dartmouth there is a lot of school spirit. I knew I had to play 100 percent to win."
At the end of the match, tensions were so high that Yu mockingly shouted, "I love Dartmouth!" The poor display of sportsmanship forced Reyes to abstain from shaking his hand, a tennis tradition.
"I just got real angry when he yelled 'I love Dartmouth' at the top of his lungs right after winning the match," Reyes said. "I felt that was a completely classless move on his part and wanted to do something to make sure he knew how angry I was."
The two did end up reconciling their differences and Reyes later approached him.
Shortly after, McGaughey dropped the final match of the day 7-6, 6-3. More important than the conflict, which also included Waslen's opponent Nic Brunner getting into a shouting match with a Dartmouth spectator was Dartmouth losing its first two Ivy League matches. After a year of hard work, the team was dejected after losing two in a row, but not nearly ready to give up.
"It's obviously disappointing losing the first two matches of Ivy League play. It's put us at a very tough position to have a shot at the Ivy League title," Reyes said. "There are still five matches left in the season so we can still end the season on a positive note."
The Big Green continues Ivy play next weekend with matches away against Princeton and Penn.
