The Big Green (9-4) entered the trip on a roll, having earned victories against two ranked teams St. John's University and Boston College before concluding the indoor season. The wins vaulted Dartmouth to 71st in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Division I National Rankings.
The position marked the first time any team members had experienced a national ranking, according to captain Curtis Roby '11.
"That was a great feeling," he said. "It's just a testament to our work ethic."
Cameron Ghorbani '14 acknowledged that the ranking increased expectations for the team as it began outdoor play.
"Normally going into these matches we've been considered underdogs, but going in being ranked kind of puts a target on our back," he said.
Dartmouth opened the trip against the University of Portland, playing at the University of California, Santa Barbara courts. The Big Green won a hard-fought contest, 4-3, taking three of six singles matches and sweeping all three doubles matches to earn the decisive point.
Xander Centenari '13, Ghorbani and Brandon DeBot '14 won in the second, fourth and sixth singles positions, respectively.
Both the number one doubles pairing of Roby and Stephen Greif '11 and the second pairing of Centenari and Michael Laser '12 took 8-6 victories. Alex De Chatellus '13 and Ghorbani cruised to an 8-1 victory at the number three spot.
The team followed the victory with a tough 4-2 loss to UCSB (8-9) in a match that was delayed and shortened no doubles matches were played due to rain.
Roby took a 7-6, 6-3 victory at the number three singles position, and DeBot came back from a set down to win 4-6, 6-3, 6-2. The Big Green dropped matches at the other four singles spots, however, giving UCSB an insurmountable lead. Laser pushed his match to even the score at 3-3 splitting the first two sets 3-6, 6-4 but finally fell in a tight third set, 5-7.
The Big Green followed the loss and a drop to 74th in the national rankings with another tight contest at Loyola Marymount University. The team split the singles matches with strong wins by DeBot in the fifth singles position and Chris Ho '12 at the number six spot. Roby also took a point in the third singles spot, winning a tight three set match with a strong 6-1 victory in the final set. The Big Green's streak of winning nine straight doubles points was snapped, however, and losses at the first and second doubles position gave Loyola Marymount (10-8) the win, 4-3.
Roby acknowledged that the team was disappointed with the two losses.
"The two matches that we lost, we could have won at least one of them," he said. "They were good teams, but teams I think we could have beaten."
Dartmouth bounced back against the University of Utah, rounding out the spring break trip with a 5-2 victory.
The second doubles team of Laser and Centenari won, 8-5, and De Catellus and Ghorbani took an 8-2 win at the third spot to secure the doubles point. The number one doubles pair of Roby and Greif dropped its second straight match in heartbreaking fashion, falling in an 8-6 tiebreaker to lose the match 8-7. Centenari, Roby, Ghorbani and DeBot all earned singles wins. Ghorbani impressively won in the number five position, 6-3, 7-6, taking the second set tiebreaker without allowing his opponent a single point.
"We got to the tiebreaker and I hadn't been playing that great, but I really focused in the tiebreaker and luckily I won every point," Ghorbani said. "That was a tough match but I was able to pull it out."
Players believe they are in good shape as they prepare to begin the team's Ivy League season, Roby said, although he said the Big Green will face tough competition.
"We're going to have to play well to win matches, but I think we're going be fine," he said.
The Big Green opens League play against defending League champion Columbia University in Hanover on April 1.
