The men fought off early jitters Saturday morning, dropping the doubles point to Temple. The singles players, however, swept all six matches for a 6-1 victory.
Chris Ho '12 reversed the momentum early by pulling the match even with a quick and convincing victory over Temple's Kurt Mauro, 6-0, 6-1.
"Sometimes it can be a bit discouraging to lose the doubles point," Ho said. "It was good that my match was very quick and got us onto the board."
Dartmouth's singles lineup took care of business from then on. Michael Laser '12, Stephen Greif '11, co-captain Curtis Roby '11 and Alex Centenari '13 all earned straight-set victories.
First singles player Dan Freeman '10 pulled out a tough win over Temple's Filip Rams to complete the singles sweep.
After a short break, the Dartmouth men took on Sacred Heart Saturday afternoon. Ho and partner Alex de Chatellus '13 earned an important doubles victory against Temple's duo of Nick Mazzerese and Kirill Kasyanov. Centenari and Mike Jacobs '13 secured the doubles point by winning their match, 8-3.
"With Sacred Heart, it was our second match of the day," Ho said. "We were tired and they had fresh legs, so we knew we had to play hard."
In singles, Jacobs continued his rookie winning streak in a comeback victory against Sacred Heart's Chadd Sullo. Freeman, de Chatellus and Centenari also earned victories for the Big Green en route to a 5-2 win over the Pioneers.
On Sunday afternoon, the Big Green took on Temple again and notched their third win of the weekend by defeating the Owls, 5-2.
Eric Schlobohm '11 and Kevin Cox '13 had an impressive 8-1 win in the second doubles spot. In singles, the players switched spots and played different opponents from the first match the day before.
After dropping the first set, Laser pulled out an impressive win against Rams in the top singles slot. Freeman, Roby and Centenari all won their matches in straight sets.
"We have a young team this year, and what's great about the freshmen is they all have a great positive attitude," Ho said.
The men's two returning seniors have a heavy responsibility to bear head coach Chuck Kinyon, who has coached men's tennis at Dartmouth for 27 years, will retire at the end of the season. This year's team would like to send Kinyon out with a strong last season, Roby said.
The Big Green women's team also took the court at the Boss Tennis Center against Temple on Saturday in the busy weekend of tennis.
Familiar faces Molly Scott '11 and Mary Beth Winingham '10 both notched strong wins in their respective singles matches. After blanking her opponent in the first set, co-captain Jesse Adler '10 needed three sets to defeat Temple's Katharina Mittag.
Out of Dartmouth's six singles players, five were upperclassmen. Sarah Leonard '13, the lone rookie in the bunch, played her first regular season collegitate match this weekend.
"It was definitely very exciting," Leonard said. "It was my first time playing in front of Dartmouth tennis fans."
Leonard's opponent, senior Anastasiia Rukavyshnykova, took advantage of Leonard's inexperience and took the first set to a 5-5 tie initially. Leonard, however, came back to break serve and narrowly escape with a 7-5 win. Getting over the butterflies in the second set, the freshman easily won 6-0.
Even more than in past years, this year's team has its eyes set on the Ivy League title, Leonard said.
"We all have great mutual respect and admiration for each other," she said. "We work hard for each other."
The men's team will return to play at West Point to take on Army Saturday, while the women's team will go up against Boston College at the Weymouth Club in Weymouth, Mass.
