Dartmouth's men's tennis continued its successful fall campaign with five singles finalists in the nine flights of the Dartmouth Invitational, held at the Boss Tennis Center in Hanover over the weekend.
Coming off a shoulder injury, co-captain Curtis Roby '11 challenged fellow teammate Dan Freeman '10 in the finals of the A flight.
While Freeman came away with the victory, both players secured their spots in the finals with ease, head coach Chuck Kinyon said.
"Both guys got there fairly easily and played strong games throughout," he said. "The final put a little pressure on them, since the setting was a lot more formal. It's hard to replicate that pressure when you're just practicing."
Co-captain Jeff Friedman '10 dispatched sophomore Derrick Angle of Middlebury in the C flight finals.
Alongside the seasoned upperclassmen, the Big Green freshmen also showed their merit on the courts, as Mike Jacobs '13 rounded out the victories for the Big Green with a win in the F flight. Eight of the 11 Dartmouth athletes who played in the Invitational came from the freshman and sophomore classes.
"We kept fewer guys overall, and some of the upperclassmen are off, or for whatever other reason aren't playing this season," assistant coach Dave Jones said. "It makes more room for the freshmen."
Jones added that the new crop of players will have time to gain the experience needed to push Dartmouth to the next level. The team will look to build off of its successes when it starts the dual match season, he said.
"So far it's been just individual tournaments," he said. "We've been playing a lot of matches, so we're hoping that once January comes around, by playing all these matches, we'll be ready for a team match."
Kinyon also added that, starting in January, the level of play will be higher.
"The freshmen bring a fresh feeling to the squad, but we've got to get better," he said. "We've got some work to do, especially since the league is so strong."
While the Dartmouth Invitational attracted some of the top talent from Divisions I and III in New England, Chris Ho '12 said that the Big Green did not face highly touted squads.
On the first day of action, Dartmouth controlled all of the singles matches for a perfect 9-0 record. The players continued their good showing throughout the weekend. While the other schools did not pose much of a threat, Ho said that Dartmouth will use these matches as a build-up for the spring, when the players will face stiffer competition from Ivy League foes like Columbia, Harvard and Yale.
"All of these matches don't matter in the sense that our ultimate goal for the season is to win the Ivies," he said.
The ITA Regionals will act as a prelude to the spring season, as Dartmouth will send six players to compete against nationally ranked schools from the New England region.
Since this year's regional is smaller, Jones said that certain schools, like No. 54 Pennsylvania State University, will not attend, leaving the field open for Dartmouth.
Ho said that he thinks that Dartmouth will do well at the regionals.
"We had a tough season last year, but I think we'll definitely play better this season," he said. "I'm very happy with the attitude this year. It's been very positive, so I really hope we can keep the optimism up."
The Big Green will return to the Boss Tennis Center in Hanover in two weekends when the Big Green hosts the ITA Regionals, held from Oct. 15 to Oct. 20.
