Co-captains Paul Strauch '13, Alyssa Perez '13, and Edita Robinson '13 had been to Arizona as freshmen, so they were able to prepare the team for the experience.
"We knew what to expect," Strauch said. "Only the top two or three regional schools make it to nationals, so everyone there is really good. Even in the Copper bracket there was nothing even approaching a weak team."
Day one was one of close matches and tough breaks for the Big Green. The team played three matches, losing the first to much-larger Arizona State University at 8 a.m. The matches were played with one set of men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles, women's doubles and mixed doubles each. Dartmouth lost to ASU by only four games.
"We emphasized coming out strong, and we really played well all weekend," Perez said. "The losses on the first day were due to some really rough breaks."
Perez hurt her knee in the first match against ASU and was forced to sit out the weekend after re-injuring it later in the day.
"It was really tough," Perez said. "But [Jennifer Wray '16] was a great substitute and was really consistent throughout the weekend."
The Big Green went on to lose two heartbreakers to Baylor University and the University of Delaware. Dartmouth held the lead against Baylor heading into the mixed doubles set, but ultimately lost in a tiebreaker.
"The first day was definitely frustrating," Stefan Kuhar '16 said. "But we rallied hard the next two days and made up for it."
The team was placed in the Copper bracket after its first-day struggles but quickly redeemed itself.
The Big Green came away with two victories over South Dakota State University and Washington University in St. Louis. These matches were marked by outstanding individual performances, including one by Robinson against Washington.
"Edita played an incredible match," Perez said. "She was down 4-0 and came back to win, which was huge for us."
Day three began with a tough loss to Boston College in the Copper bracket semifinals, but the team ultimately earned a third-place finish against DePaul University later in the day, leaning on excellent performances from Kuhar, who won a singles set 6-1, and David Lerner '14 in mixed doubles to beat DePaul.
"David had an incredibly consistent weekend for us," Strauch said. "Against DePaul, he was down 4-1 and somehow figured out a way to come back and win it in a tiebreaker."
The team had hoped to play in the Gold or Silver bracket this weekend, but were satisfied with their efforts and gave a lot of credit to their opponents.
"Lots of our competition there is big state schools, where most of the players on the club team could play for Dartmouth's varsity team," Perez said.
Strauch said he was impressed with the team's competitiveness.
"We beat teams from schools that are five times bigger than ours," he said. "And teams we beat during qualifying ended up 30 places above us in the standings."
The team clinched its spot in the tournament last October when they traveled to Harvard University to compete in the New England sectionals.
There, the Big Green defeated strong opponents, including Yale University, to land a spot at Nationals.
Just by qualifying for the national tournament, the team secured invitations to some prestigious tournaments next year, such as the Battle of the Sections at Flushing Meadows, the site of the U.S. Open, next September.
"We ended up with a pretty good outcome this weekend," Kuhar said. "We are excited to play on such a large stage next year."
The team ended its weekend with a friendly meal at a nearby In-N-Out Burger.
"We're a very close-knit group because of the small size of the team and the amount of time we spend together," Strauch said.
Perez echoed her co-captain's sentiments.
"We're very proud of the team," she said. "We really enjoyed being around each other and traveling to a warm, sunny place together."
