The Dartmouth men's tennis team beat the Cornell Big Red 4-3 in Ivy League play this weekend. The fiercely-contested victory was the first for the Big Green in conference action.
Currently, Dartmouth is fifth in the Ivy League standings. The University of Pennsylvania and Harvard are tied for first, as both teams have undefeated league records. The Big Green, however, owns the overall highest winning percentage out of the eight Ivy League teams, at 16-4 (.800). The loss to Dartmouth dropped Cornell (12-6, 0-3 Ivy) to a tie for last place in the Ivy League.
Captain David Waslen '07 and Steven McGaughey '07 got the Big Green (16-4, 1-1 Ivy) started off right with a 9-8 win in doubles play. Dartmouth spilt the other two doubles matches, featuring a convincing 8-5 victory by the combination of Jeffrey Schechtman '08 and Daniel Freeman '10. Sophomore Ari Gayer '09 and freshman Andy Kim '10, however, ended up on the short end of an 8-3 decision against Cornell's third doubles.
The Waslen/McGaughey victory came over Nick Brunner and Josh Raff, the top-ranked men's doubles team in the country. In the fall, the Cornell duo was defeated by a combination of Waslen and Freeman.
In the singles matches, Cornell's Nick Brunner defeated Waslen in straight sets, 6-0, 6-3. This setback, however, did not deter the Big Green. Dartmouth won both the second and third singles matches, as Freeman and Schechtman picked up victories to give Dartmouth a 3-1 lead over the Big Red.
Cornell's Jonathan Fife would earn a point for the Big Red with his come-from-behind victory over Dartmouth's Justin Tzou '10, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2. The Big Green would clinch the victory with a Steven McGaughey win over Peter Kung, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2. Gayer lost the final singles event, 6-4, 2-6, 6-2, to Cornell's Josh Goldstein, making the final score 4-3.
"It was such a close match, but we had a better work ethic out there, wanted it more and came together as a team better than Cornell." Waslen said. "It was a great feeling to get the first [Ivy League] win under our belt, but we know we're a damn good team and should be expecting to get some more wins."
The Big Green enters a tenuous part of its schedule in the coming weeks. All five remaining games are against Ivy League competition, the likes of which have given Dartmouth problems in the past few years. The Big Green went winless in Ivy play last season, finishing 0-7 in the conference.
As for goals for the rest of the season, it seems relatively simple to Waslen.
"[Our goal is to] win. Flat out. This is not a time to work on any part of our game. It's time to win," he said.
This task seems simple, but the competition will only get more challenging as Dartmouth travels to Princeton and Penn this weekend.
"Princeton is going to be extremely tough this year. Going on the road this weekend will be hard, but we need to keep rolling and we have a good chance to pull one [of the two] matches out," Waslen said.
Dartmouth will likely have to win its last five matches to win the Ivy League title, something it hasn't done since 1997.
Dartmouth begins its pair of Ivy match-ups next weekend against Princeton on Friday, April 13 at 2 p.m., and then travels to Penn on Saturday, April 14 for a 2 p.m. start in Philadelphia, Pa.
