The Dartmouth men's tennis team left the comfort and safety of the Alexis Boss Tennis Center this weekend, traveling to North Carolina to challenge teams from Davidson College on Friday, Feb. 16 and the University North of Carolina-Greensboro on Saturday, Feb. 17. The Big Green was able to successfully add to its nine-game winning streak by toppling Davidson 6-1 and UNCG 5-2.
In order to allow time to get to their 2 p.m. match against Davidson in Charlottesville, N.C., the Dartmouth men left Hanover at 5:30 a.m. on Thursday. They were able to navigate through JFK Airport in New York and at the last minute, got themselves on a jetBlue flight bound for Charlottesville. They arrived at their final destination at 10:30 p.m. and tried to get some sleep after the 17-hour day.
"It was a really tough trip," senior captain David Waslen '07 said. "Everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong, but we did manage to get down there. We persevered and overcame the elements. It was a job to battle through when everything was pointing the wrong direction."
The traveling took its toll on the Dartmouth team, and the men had a slow start in doubles play against the rested Davidson squad. Davidson quickly established a lead over the Big Green, but with the strength of Dartmouth's two top doubles teams, the Big Green was able to secure the doubles team point.
In the No. 3 doubles court, Ari Gayer '09 and Andrew Kim '10 were quickly defeated by Wildcats' sophomore Phillip Compeau and freshman Eric Noble 8-1.
In No. 1 doubles, Waslen and Daniel Freeman '10 were down 4-6 against Davidson's senior John Bolton and Romanian junior Flaviu Simihaian, but Waslen and Freeman were able to turn things around and win 8-6.
"The match was not looking like it was going to go our way," Waslen said. "In a blink of an eye we turned things around and we were able to pull it out in good fashion."
On the No. 2 doubles court, Dartmouth's Jeffrey Schechtman '08 and Steven McGaughey '07 were down 5-6 and had serve. They overcame Davidson's sophomore Ethan Jaffee and freshman Sam Burns 8-6, giving Dartmouth its first point of the night.
In singles play, Dartmouth had another slow start but all except one Dartmouth player could claim victory for the day.
Team captain Waslen was on the No. 1 singles court, taking on Simihaian and quickly jumping into the lead in the first set 6-2. In the second set, Simihaian came back with vengeance and beat out Waslen 6-7 but fell to the Big Green senior in the third set in a very close breaker, 11-9. With the win, Waslen secured the last point needed to win the match.
"Singles was a battle; I jumped up on him early and did not take him seriously and got stuck in a rut for a while. When it came down to the wire, I was able to squeak it out," Waslen said.
Dartmouth dominated in the No. 6 court with left hander McGaughey smashing the ball against Noble. McGaughey was off the court in under thirty minutes with a 6-1, 6-4 victory.
The ever-steady Justin Tzou '10 had a disappointing first set against sophomore Scott Myers on the No. 4 court, losing 7-5, but rebounded in the next two sets 6-1, 6-2 to win the match.
On the No. 2 court, Freeman lost his first set 4-6 against Jaffee but rallied back, playing up on the net, giving himself some easy points and prevailing 6-3, 6-0. Schechtman won a very close first set against Bolton, 7-5 in the No. 3 singles, demoralizing Bolton, making it easy to win the second set 6-0.
Ari Gayer '09 lost his match at No. 5 singles in a super tiebreaker by a small margin after the Big Green had already won the contest. After losing the first set against Burns 6-3, Gayer came back in the second set 6-7 but lost the super breaker 10-8.
"It was a very solid win for us, a good team and [we] beat them 6-1 on their home court," head coach Chuck Kinyon said.
Dartmouth's played its second game of the weekend at UNC-Chapel Hill against UNC-Greensboro. The Big Green took the win after struggling at the top of the order and relying heavily on their depth of players who secured singles wins on the bottom three courts.
Dartmouth's doubles win came down to the No. 3 doubles team who struggled the day before with Davidson. Kim and Gayer smashed freshman William John and senior Ian Conchar 8-0.
"Third doubles stepped up, it was excellent," Kinyon said.
In No. 2 doubles, Schechtman and McGaughey had a good day of returning the serves of freshman Taylor Befus and senior Jason Steinhorn, beating the UNCG duo 8-3, securing the doubles point for Dartmouth.
Things did not go as smoothly for Dartmouth on the No. 1 doubles court. Waslen and Freeman were overtaken by freshman William Adeimy and junior Martin Redelinghuys, 8-5.
"We came out a little bit flat and battled hard to get back into it. We did not have the spark to come back once again," Waslen said.
In singles play, Dartmouth quickly earned the remaining points needed for the win. Tzou, Gayer and McGaughey each swept their matches at the No. 4, No. 5 and No. 6 spots for the Big Green.
On the No. 1 court, Waslen became frustrated after falling to Redelinghuys in the first set 4-6. He began serving harder in the second set and moving better towards the net, allowing him to knock off volleys for winners to take the set 6-4. The players went to a super breaker in which Waslen won 10-7.
"My singles was a good, tough match, but I was able to fight hard and scratch and claw my way back and able to pull it out," Waslen said. "As a team, we need to pull out the scrappy matches."
In No. 2 singles, Freeman split with Conchar 3-6, 6-3 and had a disappointing super-breaker 7-10.
"It's hard to tell who would have won in a third set. It's hard to compete when the match is already won," Kinyon said.
In the No. 3 singles spot, Schechtman struggled against Adeimy, splitting 6-7, 7-6 but fell in the super breaker, 11-9.
Dartmouth will be battling Army on Friday, March 2 at 6 p.m. and Boston University the following day at 2 p.m. at the Alexis Boss Tennis Center.
