The Big Green (8-13, 0-4 Ivy) has now extended its losing streak to five matches, winning just once in the last 11 contests.
In a match with three tiebreakers on Friday, Dartmouth succumbed 6-1 to Princeton at the Boss Tennis Center. The Tigers opened the game by winning No. 2 and No. 3 doubles to take the doubles point. Co-captain Dave Waslen '07 and Steve McGaughey '07 won at No. 1 against Andrew Lieu and Ted Mabrey 8-4, but it was not enough for the Big Green. Jeff Schechtman '08 and Rashaad Elder-Bush '06 lost 8-3 at No. 2 while Raj Shrestha '06 and Ari Gayer '09 were defeated 8-5 at No. 3.
In singles, Dartmouth's top seed Dave Waslen '07 returned to the team after missing a weekend of action because of a family matter.
However, he lost against Sratha Saengsuwarn 6-3, 6-3. The Big Green lost matches at Nos. 2, 4 and 5, all of which required tiebreakers.
Shrestha lost in straight sets at No. 3, but Rashaad Elder-Bush managed to clinch the point for Dartmouth by defeating Shannon Morales 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 at No. 6.
The win over Dartmouth was the Tigers' first Ivy League win of the season as they moved to 6-11 overall, 1-3 in the ever-competitive Ancient Eight.
"I was disappointed in our match against Princeton. The 1-6 score was not indicative of how close the match was. Even so we were three tie breakers from winning the match," said head coach Charles Kinyon after the game.
On Saturday, the Big Green came closer to the coveted Ivy League win but dropped a 5-2 decision to No. 44 Penn.
Dartmouth captured the doubles point with wins at Nos. 1 and 3.
Waslen and McGaughey won their second match of the weekend, defeating Jason Pinsky and Joseph Lok 8-6 at No. 1 while Shrestha and Gayer downed Stetson and O'Gara 8-3. At No. 2, Schechtman and Elder-Bush dropped an 8-7 decision against Jonathan Boym and Mikhail Bekker.
McGaughey continued his excellent performance over the weekend and won his match at No. 5 against Justin Fox 6-0, 6-4.
"My performance this season has been marked by close matches that I just couldn't close out. So it felt good to get those wins today, but more importantly, it felt good to gain some more confidence going into next weekend.
"Overall I just hope to keep helping out our team for our remaining matches," McGaughey said after the game.
However, the Quakers proved too strong for the Big Green, winning the rest of the games in straight sets.
Elder-Bush came closest to capturing a point for Dartmouth at No. 6, but Jimmy Fairbanks managed to overcome his resistance 7-6, 7-5 (6). Despite the defeat, Kinyon remains optimistic for Dartmouth's chances to record its first league win in two years.
"I believe that we showed today against Penn that we are competitive with anyone in the league. If we can put together good performances by everyone on a given day, no telling what can happen," Kinyon said.
"As in any Ivy match the overall score never tells the whole story. Every match we played was close and I feel like the score could have very easily been 5-2 in our favor," McGaughey said, supporting his coach's opinion.
Waslen added, "I think that we fought really hard this weekend, especially against Penn who is at the top of the Ivies, so we proved to ourselves that we can beat any team we face."
With the win, Penn improves to 16-5 overall and 4-1 in the Ancient Eight. After setting a new school record of 12 straight wins, the Quakers lost 2-5 to Harvard on Friday, and the win against Dartmouth was a good comeback for them. Penn still leads the way in the Ancient Eight, followed by defending champions Brown at 3-1.
Dartmouth resumes play on Friday, April 21, when it hosts Brown in Hanover. The Big Green then travels to New Haven, Conn. on Sunday, April 23 for its weekend match against Yale.
"Brown is the defending champ. They are solid, but with two starting freshmen. Should be a battle," said Kinyon.
"In this league teams fluctuate so much from year to year that being the defending champion doesn't mean that much. As I said before we expect to win and as long as we keep our confidence up we'll do just that," McGaughey added.
