Usually the team that gets off to the fast start gains momentum and holds on for victory.
While that was true for the Penn men’s tennis team this Saturday at Levy Tennis Pavilion, it was not true for the women’s team.
Both squads jumped out to 2-0 leads against their common opponent, Buffalo, but while the men held on for a 4-3 win, the women dropped five straight matches en route to a 5-2 defeat.
On the men’s side, the Quakers (4-1) got off to a quick start by sweeping doubles for the first time this spring.
Senior captain Phil Law followed up with a dominant 6-0, 6-1 victory at No. 4 singles to give the Quakers an early lead.
The bottom of the Quakers’ singles lineup, with Law at No. 4, freshman Jeremy Court at No. 5 and senior Jason Lin at No. 6, was crucial to the Penn victory. Each won his respective matches in straight sets.
On the other hand, Penn’s inexperience at the top of the lineup showed. Sophomores Ivan Turudic and Nikola Kocovic dropped their matches in straight sets at No. 1 and No. 2 singles, respectively.
On the women’s side, inexperience proved not to be a problem for the Red and Blue (3-4). In fact, Penn’s only two victories came from freshmen Alex Ion and Srinidhi Raghavan at No. 2 and No. 4 singles, respectively.
However, the freshmen’s strong performances to open the match were insufficient, as the Quakers dropped their next four singles matches and all three doubles matches.
Both the men’s team and women’s team will head to Florida for spring break in an effort to adjust to outdoor tennis.
The men will first play UMBC in Baltimore on Saturday, before heading to Florida for four matches in five days.
The women will play just two matches over their spring break.
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