The Dartmouth men's and women's tennis teams were both in action this weekend, both winning their matches. The women (4-6, 0-0 Ivy) took on the University of Massachusetts in Hanover on Friday, while the men traveled to Binghamton, N.Y., where they played Binghamton University on Saturday night before a morning match against Illinois State University on Sunday.
The women have struggled in recent matches, going 1-3 in their last four contests before Friday, but got back on track with a 6-1 defeat of UMass (5-5, 3-1 Atlantic 10). The Big Green singles players took five out of six points, losing only at No. 2, with Akiko Okuda '15 falling to Yuliana Motyl.
"It was important that we won the doubles point," co-captain Sarah Leonard '13 said. "The deciding point was No. 2 doubles, and it was back and forth, so it was important to pull it out."
The No. 4 and No. 5 singles matches were tightly contested, but both Theresa Smith '15 and Sabrina Stewart '14 were able to squeak out victories in super tiebreakers by the same score, 10-6.
"We're just going to continue to focus on getting our cohesiveness and our competitive spirit as a group to continue to develop even more strongly as we go into the spring break and the Ivy season," Leonard said.
The women will return to the court over spring break, when they head to California for four matches before returning for the spring season.
The Big Green men (10-1, 0-0 Ivy), playing in their first match in two weeks, came out strong against Binghamton (5-6) on Saturday evening with a 7-0 victory. The team dropped only one match, losing at the No. 1 doubles spot, 9-8. Despite the lopsided score, the Big Green players were challenged during the match.
"We played a tough Binghamton team on their home courts, which were a lot faster than ours, so we had to deal with adverse conditions," co-captain Xander Centenari '13 said. "They have beaten us before pretty handily in previous matches, but we came out with a lot of energy. I thought the guys did a good job dealing with the adversity well."
Dartmouth took all but one singles match in straight sets. After dropping the first set, 5-7, in his match against Ismael Dinia, Brandon DeBot '14 was able to come back with a 6-4 second set and close out the match, 10-4, in a super tiebreaker.
The Big Green stepped right back onto the courts on Sunday morning at 8 a.m. to take on a strong Illinois State team.
"Illinois State was definitely better than Binghamton and we knew that going in," Centenari said. "Having the match under our belt from Saturday helped us out a lot."
The schedule did not grant the team much time for recovery, and the Big Green got off to a slow start against the Redbirds, losing two doubles matches to give Illinois State the first point. Dartmouth was able to shake off the poor doubles play and take the match, 5-2, by winning five out of six singles contests.
"Everyone fought pretty hard," Centenari said. "We were down 1-0 from the start, but guys were fired up and kept the energy going to bounce back well from the doubles."
While the score was 5-2, many of the singles matches were tightly contested. At No. 1 singles, Michael Laser '12 needed to come back from behind by a set before taking the match with a 7-5 victory in the third set.
With the team up, 3-2, and two matches left, Brandon DeBot '14 sealed the win for the Big Green by winning a tight second set.
"Brandon DeBot was the closer, winning 7-5 in the second set," Centenari said. "He played phenomenally well at the end, incredibly clutch."
The Dartmouth men have had a strong winter season, with the team's lone loss coming against Harvard University in the ECAC tournament two weeks ago. Their success has earned them the No. 57 ranking in the country, and the team is pleased with their results so far.
"We're 10-1, which is pretty awesome," Centenari said. "It's great. A lot of the hard work that we've put in since September has really paid off. We are very mentally tough and we compete very well."
Centenari said that the team has not become too concerned about the scores and has been more focused on execution, allowing the team to thrive.
"We've done a good job this winter in embracing the process instead of getting too tied up into the results," he said.
The team will close its winter season and head into spring break, when the team will travel to California for matches before returning for the spring.
"We have four matches over spring break and then Ivy season in the spring, and we're in a really good place right now," Centenari said.
