The Dartmouth men's tennis team lost consecutive away matches this past weekend. On Friday, Dartmouth was shut out by the Princeton Tigers, and only narrowly avoided another shutout against the University of Pennsylvania on Saturday. The unsuccessful road trip all but ended the Big Green's chance for an Ivy League title. Penn is still undefeated in Ivy League play.
On Friday, Dartmouth (16-6, 1-3 Ivy) put itself in a hole early by getting swept in doubles play. Dartmouth's combination of Dave Waslen '07 and Daniel Freeman '10, usually deadly, lost a tough 9-8 decision to Princeton's Ted Mabry/George Caperi duo. Following the Waslen/Freeman loss, the doubles matches became slightly less competitive, and Jeff Schechtman '08 and Steve McGaughey '07 lost 8-5, and Ari Gayer '09 and Andy Kim '10 lost 8-2.
After the doubles matches, the Tigers continued their dominance in the singles matches. Dartmouth's top player Waslen lost in straight sets to Princeton's Peter Capovic. In the second singles, Princeton's Sratha Saengsuwain made quick work of Freeman. Schechtman was the only Big Green player to win a set, as he took the first one against Carpeni, but would end up losing, 4-6, 7-6, 7-6. Dartmouth's fourth, fifth and sixth singles would drop matches in straight sets to their Princeton foes. The final score was Princeton 7, Dartmouth 0. It was the first time Dartmouth has failed to score this year.
Looking to reverse their fortune, the Big Green traveled to Penn for their match on Saturday. Again, Dartmouth struggled in the doubles competition, with Waslen and Freeman and Schechtman and Dave Steinberg '08 losing 8-4, 8-4, respectively. Justin Tzou '10 and Kim would win in the third doubles competition, 8-5, against Penn's Justin Fox and Brandon O'Gara. It was the first time that Tzou and Kim have played doubles together this year, and the duo proved to be quite formidable.
The momentum from the doubles win failed to carry over to the singles matches, and Dartmouth lost the first four singles matches to Princeton in straight sets. Waslen lost to Penn's No. 1, Jason Pinksy, 6-2, 6-3. At No. 2 singles, Freeman lost to Jonathan Boym 6-2, 6-2. Penn's Mikkhail Bekker downed Dartmouth's Schechtman 6-3, 6-4. In the fourth singles match, Joe Lok dominated Dartmouth's Tzou, winning 6-0, 6-2.
Dartmouth finally earned a point when its No. 5 singles, Gayer, beat Adam Schwartz in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4. Dartmouth's Jeffery Friedman lost in the sixth singles spot to Alex Vassin 6-2, 6-2.
Captain Waslen felt that the team's poor performance had more to do with a lack of faith in its own ability.
"I wouldn't say we lacked effort by any means, we just needed to believe in ourselves when the matches get close," he said.
Because of this, the team will not make any major changes in its strategy.
"Just mentally we need to come into the matches with more confidence; we need to expect to win when we walk out there," Waslen said. "Some matches certainly could have had other results, but we can't play every match at home where we're comfortable, so that shouldn't be an excuse."
Dartmouth only has three matches left this season, and all of them are league matches. The team needs to win the rest of its games to avoid a losing record in league play.
"Every match we play in the spring is going to be tough from start to finish, so with the remaining matches we need to have a more confident attitude when we play these teams," Waslen said.
On Friday, the team travels to Brown, followed by home dates to close out the season against Yale and Harvard.
