Men's tennis closed out its season with a loss at home to No. 43 Harvard on Wednesday. The unfortunate defeat against the Crimson was the seventh consecutive match without a victory for the Big Green, with each loss coming against Ivy League opponents. The team finished the season 8-14 overall and 0-7 in conference play. The match marked the end of the careers for five Dartmouth seniors, including co-captains Dave Webb '05 and Andres Reyes '05.
The tell-tale sign of a Dartmouth victory this season has been the doubles point, and in its match against Harvard, they were unable to secure the momentum-building first point. At the number two doubles spot, Dave Waslen '07 and Steve McGaughey '07 continued their success and won a close match 9-8. In the past five matches, they have been the only Dartmouth duo to win four times.
Two Dartmouth senior pairs also played, but could not come away with a victory. Co-captains Webb and Reyes closed out a career together with a tough loss at the number one doubles spot 8-5. Logan West '05 and Priya Sahu '05 met similar fate at the number three spot, losing 8-3.
Difficulties continued for the Big Green during the singles play, where they dropped five of six. At one point, Dartmouth was in position to win four of the six matches, but the team could only come away with one victory. "[Wednesday] against Harvard was a typical 2005 Ivy match in that we put ourselves in position to win, but did not finish," coach Charles Kinyon said.
The only victory came from the number five spot freshman Jeff Schechtman 2-6, 6-2, 6-4. The victory was Schechtman's first since returning from spring break. He had gone 0-7 before winning in the final match of the season. The victory should prove to be a confidence builder going into next season.
The team could not support Schechtman's wins, although there were some very close matches. "We all fought really hard today," Waslen said. "The match was a lot closer than what the score was."
Waslen, the team's most successful player this season took his match to the third set before losing the number two singles match 6-2, 3-6, 6-3. Reyes, who has provided a spark for the Big Green since moving into the singles rotation after spring break, lost a very close match at the number four spot 3-6, 7-5 (7). McGaughey saw a similar result to his match at the sixth spot, losing 3-6, 7-6 (5) (4).
Webb lost at the No. 1 spot 6-4, 6-3 to Harvard's John Chu, who is nationally ranked at No. 47. The early part of the season saw great success for Webb, but since hampered by nagging injuries, he has struggled to win as many matches.
Recent losses ended the season on a bad note for Dartmouth. "Ivy League competition is by far the hardest competition we face all year," Reyes commented. "Emotionally, it was very disappointing."
Looking forward to next season, the team will see a large turnaround in the roster. Despite losing so many players, the team seemed confident that next season will be successful.
Kinyon is looking for Waslen to step up and lead the team by example next year: "Dave Waslen's success of late hopefully will continue, which could make him one of the top players in the region next season."
Hopefully, next year's team can maintain the great mentality that defined this year.
"Aside from the win-loss record, this was the best year I had playing at Dartmouth," Reyes said. We got along great as a team, both on and off the court."
