Dan Freeman '10 and Stephen Greif '11 started strong against the St. John's Red Storm, posting an 8-4 win in the No. 1 doubles spot.
At No. 2, Curtis Roby '11 and captain Ari Gayer '09 fell 8-2, and at No. 3, Justin Tzou '10 and Andrew Malizia '12 lost 8-5. The two doubles wins gave the Red Storm the first point of the match.
Although the Big Green had many opportunities to grab the again in singles play, in the end, the team's tough effort was not enough.
At the No. 1 singles spot, Freeman continued his dominant play, winning easily in straight sets. His doubles partner, Greif, also continued to play well, providing Dartmouth with its only other point in his 6-4, 6-4 victory at the No. 5 spot.
The rest of the team, however, could not come up with the two additional wins needed to clinch a win in the match. Roby and Tzou both lost in straight sets at the No. 2 and No. 3 spots, respectively. At No. 4, Gayer pushed his opponent to three sets, but was unable to finish him off, eventually falling 6-3, 4-6, 6-2.
Michael Laser '12 came the closest to securing another point for the Big Green at the No. 6 position. After losing the first set 6-1, Laser was able to salvage the second set with a 7-6 win to stay alive. St. John's junior Martin Kosut took the final set, 6-3, to give the Red Storm its fifth point and victory over the Big Green, allowing St. John's to advance in the tournament.
Dartmouth coach Charles Kinyon's decision to keep the new doubles pairing of Freeman and Greif for the Princeton match again proved to be a smart one, as the two started the Big Green off with a solid 8-5 win on Saturday.
"I am not sure we will stay with them the rest of the season, but they play really well each time they have played together," Kinyon said. "Dan and Stephen have been playing well individually as well."
Again, however, Dartmouth dropped matches at the No. 2 and No. 3 doubles positions. Tzou and Maliza lost quickly 8-4 in the No. 3 position, and Gayer and Roby fell just shy of pulling off an upset in the No. 3 spot.
Playing from behind, Gayer and Roby pushed the match to its limit, eventually falling 9-7 to Princeton's Ryan Kim and Ilya Trubov. Gayer attributed the loss to the Big Green's difficulting in winning games while serving.
"We had trouble the entire match holding our serve," he said. "I got broken once and that proved to be the difference."
Kinyon said that doubles play is an area the team will seek to improve in as the season progresses.
"That doubles point has been very elusive this year, and we need to do something to fix that," he said.
After winning doubles, Princeton continued its run in singles play, quickly racking up two more points with straight-set victories at the No. 1 and No. 2 singles positions.
At No. 3, Tzou came close for the Big Green, winning the first set 6-3, but falling 3-6, 4-6 in the next two sets.
Greif and Chris Ho '12 provided the only two singles wins for Dartmouth at the No. 4 and No. 6 sports. Greif played a hard-fought match, clinching the win in a deciding third-set tiebreak with a final score of 6-3, 4-6, 7-6. Ho nearly swept his opponent with a 6-1, 6-0 victory.
The three losses in the top three spots, however, coupled with Laser's loss at No. 5 and the doubles point, gave Princeton the 5-2 win.
Although the team did not advance in the tournament, Kinyon said the overall experience was a positive one for the team.
"I think anytime we take the court as a team, there is added pressure," he said. "The guys want to represent the Big Green well. We definitely wanted to win badly, and they were both very close matches. It was unfortunate, but I do believe that we learned some things that will be helpful down the road."
The Big Green will try to bounce back when they host Marist College next Saturday at 6 p.m. in Boss Tennis Center.
