The Dartmouth men's and women's tennis teams were both in action over the weekend, with the men playing at home and the women on the road. Both teams competed against Princeton University on Saturday and the University of Pennsylvania on Sunday.
The Big Green men (17-2, 3-1 Ivy) kicked off the weekend with a tight 4-3 win against the Tigers (12-9, 3-1 Ivy) outdoors at the Topliff Courts, handing Princeton its first loss of the season in Ivy League play. Dartmouth took the doubles point by winning at No. 1 and No. 3 doubles. The Big Green split the singles, 3-3, to claim the match.
"We had a fantastic crowd the entire day, which was great," Michael Laser '12 said. "It was a team victory, and I think the win defines us as a team."
Laser and Alex de Chatellus '13 won at No. 1 doubles by upsetting the No. 44 doubles team in the country. After splitting the other two doubles and earning the doubles point, the Big Green looked to singles matches to close out the match.
After several tight matches, including a tough 7-5, 1-6, 6-1 loss by Xander Centenari '13 at the No. 2 spot and a 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 comeback win by Cameron Ghorbani '14 at No. 3 singles, the match was deadlocked at three with only Brandon DeBot '14 remaining. Playing at the No. 6 position, DeBot downed Princeton's Matt Siow, 6-3, 6-2, to secure the match for the Big Green.
"Brandon DeBot played incredible ball and took the match home for us," Laser said. "It was one of the calmest clinching matches I've seen and it's a testament to how hard he's working."
On Sunday, the Dartmouth men fell to the visiting Quakers, 5-1. Laser noted that the team was lethargic after the strong win the previous day and started off by losing the doubles point, 2-1.
"We came out [on Sunday] against Penn a little flat, and they played really well," Laser said. "All these matches are very winnable and very losable, so we are going to struggle if we don't come out and do what we do as a team."
The momentum in the match swung during doubles competition, as the No. 1 team of Laser and de Chatellus battled long after the other two matches ended before finally falling, 9-8, in a tiebreaker.
"We lost a really tight match at doubles," Laser said. "It went really long and it was intense. Everybody on the team was capable of pulling out those wins, and the doubles loss definitely changed the momentum."
The singles matches were also toughly contested, as both Laser and Centenari went to three sets before losing. The lone win for the Big Green came at No. 5 singles, where Chris Ho '12 was able to pull out a victory in his match.
The Big Green women's tennis team (7-10, 1-2 Ivy) traveled to New Jersey on Saturday, where the team fell to the Tigers (9-10, 2-2 Ivy), 6-1. Sarah Leonard '13 notched the sole win for the Big Green at No. 1 singles by defeating NO. 100 Hilary Bartlett of Princeton, 6-1, 6-4.
Dartmouth lost several tight matches in the defeat. At No. 4 singles, Melissa Matsuoka '14 fell in a third set super-tiebreaker, 10-4, after losing a second set tiebreaker, 7-4. At No. 5, Theresa Smith '15 fell in a third set tiebreaker after the match had been decided.
"All the singles matches were close, and we were only able to pull through in one of them," Leonard said. "The other matches were neck-and-neck and really decided by a few points."
The Big Green bounced back on Sunday by defeating the Quakers, 4-3. Penn raced out to a 2-0 lead after winning all three doubles matches as well as at No. 1 singles.
Rachel Decker-Sadowski '14 earned the Big Green's first victory at the No. 6 spot before Theresa Smith '15 and Sabrina Stewart '14 scored wins at the No. 4 and No. 5 singles, respectively. With the overall score tied at three, the match came down to the No. 3 singles contest by Janet Liu '15. After battling through three grueling sets and being down 4-1 in the third set, Liu emerged victorious, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.
"College tennis really is a team sport and that showed through today when some of us lost our individual matches, but you get the collective win for the team," Leonard said.
The Big Green men return to action next Friday when they take on Brown University at home, while the women will travel to Providence, R.I. to take on the Bears.
