This ain't no sippin' tea: M. Tennis tours England

Tea, French pastries and tennis. Those are the best three words to sum up several weeks in May and June when Quakers coaches Gene Miller and Leif Johnson took the group to London and Paris for their quadrennial overseas tour. The trip was twofold. In the two European cities, the players and coaches enjoyed the educational opportunities as well as the chance to face some of their most challenging tennis competition. "I would highly recommend it for any team to go on one of these trips by fundraising for it," Miller said. "It's the best educational/sports trip you can do. Your team bonds extremely well." Once every four years, the NCAA allows teams to compete overseas in match play that does not count toward the maximum number of matches a tennis team is allowed in one year. Normally, Penn travels with Princeton to England to challenge a combined team of Oxford and Cambridge players for the Van Allen Cup. "The bottom line is that there is a lot of tradition that goes way back into the late 1800s with our schools playing each other," Miller said. This year, the Tigers decided not to go. Cambridge also did not participate, leaving Penn and Oxford to battle for the cup. In the match, the Quakers prevailed, 9-4. Highlighting the match was senior Joel Silman's 9-8 tiebreaker victory at the No. 1 spot over David Lucepoint. After that match, Penn's players competed against some club teams. The Quakers defeated a team from the Roehampton Tennis Club -- which Miller called the "most exquisite tennis club that they have in London, even before the All England Club," -- by a 4-2 score in a reduced format. At the Sutton Tennis Club, Penn was defeated 12-3. Miller noted that many of the strongest juniors in England play at that particular club, and so the exposure to Penn could help in the recruiting process. Those three tournaments and sightseeing tours encompassed the trip from May 20-29. From there, the team took the EuroRail from London to Paris. "We had a great time there. We played two matches, one of which we won, the other we lost," Miller said. The Quakers were defeated by players from the Tennis Club of Paris. These individuals are among the best players in their country, and some of the very best competition that Penn had faced all year. "[The entire trip] was a great experience," Miller said. "We saw a mish-mash of different players. We played on all surfaces -- grass in London and hard court and on red clay." While in Paris, the group witnessed one of the best matches at the French Open. In a third round match, the Quakers watched Brazilian Gustavo Kuerten upset fifth-seeded Thomas Muster. Kuerten eventually won the tournament. "It couldn't have been a better environment to pump you up about tennis at a better time of year than a Grand Slam event," Miller said. "Some of these guys will never see another Grand Slam event until they are in their forties." He also excitedly recounted the educational experience that the touring gave the Penn athletes. "Name a sight, educationally, and our guys saw it," Miller added. The Quakers received a personal tour of "every inch" of the All England Club and saw numerous historic sights, including Big Ben, Parliament, London Bridge, the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre and the Paris subway system. Private donations to the Tennis Trevas Tours Fund -- established by Stephanie Trevas and her family -- made the trip possible. Penn's tennis team was able to both experience European culture and play against strong competition that they hope will pay dividends in the future.

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