"I thought we played exceptionally well this weekend," head coach Charles Kinyon said. "We played well against Penn for the win, and we played well against Princeton. That was pretty special, and it's all because of these guys. They are a really great group."
The Big Green (10-9, 1-3 Ivy) got off to a strong start against the Quakers (11-8, 1-4 Ivy), with Michael Laser '12 and Daniel Freeman '10 winning the first match of the day, 8-4, in the No. 1 doubles spot. Chris Ho '12 and Alex de Chatellus '13 also won at No. 3 doubles, locking up the doubles point with an 8-3 victory.
"There was a lot of momentum going into singles after winning the doubles point," co-captain Curtis Roby '11 said.
Having obtained the doubles point, Dartmouth needed to split singles play to come away with a victory. The Big Green, however, began play with Stephen Greif '11 injuring his groin in the No. 3 spot and losing his match. Freeman and Laser responded winning their matches at No. 1 and No. 2, respectively.
Alexander Centenari '13 and Roby also finished with victories, sealing the win for Dartmouth.
"We were so excited when we beat Penn," Roby said. "I told the team after the match that we should try to enjoy this for a couple of hours, but ultimately, we needed to prepare because we had a tough match ahead of us the next day."
While preparing for its match against Princeton (8-11, 4-1 Ivy), Dartmouth learned that it would be playing on the outdoor Topliff courts rather than at the indoor Boss Tennis Center.
Despite the change in venue, the match began with a strong start from the Big Green, as Freeman and Laser once again displayed their dominance in the No. 1 doubles spot, winning 8-5. Princeton was quick to respond, however, securing the doubles point by beating Dartmouth's No. 2 and No. 3 teams.
"A lot of us were hesitant when we found out that we were playing outdoors, but the fan support was absolutely amazing," Roby said. "People from all of the fraternities, people just walking by and parents came to cheer for us."
Freeman won his match at No. 1, sending the crowd into an uproar. Despite a straight-set loss from Laser at No. 2, Ho and Roby won their matches at No. 3 and No. 4, respectively.
The Big Green then encountered a problem when Greif's injury proved to be too much for him to play, shifting the team's lineup. Co-captain Jeff Friedman '10 stepped in to play at the No. 6 spot.
"[Greif's injury] bummed everyone out," Friedman said. "I knew going into Saturday that it was a possibility that I was going to have to play. It definitely added some pressure to the rest of the team. Every else had to step up, and, overall, I think we did."
Dartmouth, now with a one-point lead, needed a win from either Centenari at the No. 5 spot or Friedman at No. 6 to secure the Big Green's second Ivy victory in two years.
Centenari took an early lead, winning the first set and leading 3-0 in the second. His opponent caught fire, however, and fought back to force the game into a tiebreaker. Friedman dropped his opening set, leading him into a must-win second set.
At this point, the match was forced back indoors to the Boss Tennis Center because of a lack of daylight.
When cramping prevented Centenari from coming back to secure the win, Friedman became the team's last hope, but ultimately he came up short.
"The Princeton guys just played great tennis, and there wasn't much more that [Centenari] or [Friedman] could have done," Roby said. "They both played really well under that type of pressure situation."
Despite the difficult loss to Princeton, the team feels optimistic about its upcoming Ivy matches, according to Friedman.
"We know now that we are good, that we can play, that we can compete, that we can beat other Ivy League teams," Friedman said. "We are going to go into our next match expecting that we can win. We are going to keep working hard and keep playing well. We are going to try to pull out a close win over Yale."
Dartmouth will take on Yale University on Friday at 2 p.m. in New Haven, Conn., and Brown University on Saturday at noon in Hanover.
