The Dartmouth co-ed club tennis team successfully defended its title last weekend at the United States Tennis Association Campus Championships New England Sectional. The Big Green defeated Boston College in the finals, 26-18, to secure its second consecutive bid to the USTA National Campus Championships in the Spring.
The sectional was held at Cedardale Health & Fitness in Haverhill, Mass.
"Last year, [winning] was a complete shock," co-captain James Francis '10 said. "Ever since we won last year, we've taken club tennis a lot more seriously. We had a bit more confidence and it helped a lot. We didn't want to just make [nationals], we wanted to win the tournament."
After victories against the University of Massachusetts and the University of Connecticut, Dartmouth beat Tufts University in the semifinal, 25-9, to advance to the final.
Each matchup in the final against the Eagles consisted of one set, with the winner determined by the most cumulative games won across all five matchups.
The Big Green jumped out to an early lead against BC, with both the men's and women's doubles pairs securing victories. David Orbuch '12 and co-captain Dan Steffensen '11 won their match, 6-1, while Chloe Gettinger '13 and Edita Robinson '13 notched a 6-2 win.
Co-captain Maggie Bell '10 won in women's singles, 6-2, before Francis fell in the men's singles match, 3-6. Though Bell and Orbuch lost mixed doubles by a 5-7 margin, their play was good enough to seal a 26-18 aggregate victory for Dartmouth.
Gettinger and Robinson's performance was especially noteworthy, as it rounded out an undefeated day for the pair of rookies.
"You can't ask for more than that," Bell said.
The Big Green will join 63 other teams in Arizona from the 16 other USTA sections as it pursues its goal of winning a national championship. The team went 2-1 in pool play at nationals last year, but it was not enough for the squad to the championship bracket in knockout play.
The team made it into the silver bracket, however, placing 27th.
Dartmouth often had to face much larger schools in the tournament, such as Ohio State University and the University of California, Bell said.
"We did pretty well considering it was our first time there," she added.
The Big Green had high expectations for the national tournament after a successful Winter season that included a victory over last year's national runner-up , the University of Wisconsin, and a hard-fought loss to Duke University, last year's national champion.
"We want to win nationals," Francis said. "That's our mindset, and that's how we're going to prepare for it over the next few months."
The national tournament will be held in Surprise, Ariz., from April 15-17.
