M. Tennis looks for lady luck over weekend

After demolishing Dartmouth 7-0 last Sunday, the Penn men's tennis team(9-8 overall, 1-3 Ivy League) avoided the ignominy of failing to win a single Ancient Eight match this season. "I was nervous that we weren't going to win one," Penn No. 1 singles' player Fanda Stejskal said. "It was great to finally get that victory." Continuing their winning ways, the Red and Blue defeated Navy on Wednesday, 5-2. Following their second consecutive victory, the Quakers now shift focus back to Ivy League competition, driven by the team's preseason goal to improve upon last season's 3-4 conference record. The Quakers need to sweep their final three matches against Cornell today (12-5, 2-3), No. 71 Columbia on Sunday (12-4, 4-1) and No. 60 Princeton next Saturday (12-8, 3-1) to finish the season 4-3 in the Ancient Eight. The Red and Blue recognize the tremendous odds against them capturing all three matches. "Besides playing a very tough Cornell team, we also play Columbia and Princeton who are both pretty good," Stejskal said. "We would have to have some real good days, and also some real lucky days for us to pull out all three." Clinging to its sanguine hope for fortuitous days ahead, Penn heads into this weekend's matches against the Big Red and the Lions. Today's home matchup pits the Quakers against a fired up Cornell squad, riding high after its recent victory over Yale, 5-2, on April 14. It was the Big Red's first triumph over the Elis since 1973. Although the Red and Blue own a 41-26-1 lifetime advantage over Cornell, the Big Red defeated the Quakers 4-3 last season in the final match of the year. The loss prevented Penn from finishing conference play with a record above .500. Avenging last year's defeat is foremost in the minds of the Quakers. "Revenge is definitely a major factor in this match," Stejskal said. "[Cornell] prevented us from having a winning Ivy League season last year." Stejskal also is personally motivated by the potential to reverse last season's 6-4, 7-6 defeat to the Big Red's Mike Halperin. "My match could've turned over the score in our favor," Stejskal said. "I want to get him back." Sunday's match at Columbia -- the defending Ivy League champions -- should be an even tougher contest for the Quakers. The Lions are currently in second place in the Ivy League, having already recorded victories over Yale, Brown, Dartmouth and Cornell. Their sole loss came in a heart-stopping 4-3 defeat at Harvard on April 7. Last season, the Lions destroyed the Quakers 6-1. "They look to be a very good team on paper and are much more talented that we are," Stejskal said. "However, they don't appear as focused as last season and that could give us the opportunity to somehow pull out a win." A major step towards triumph in these pivotal matches would be winning the doubles point. Whereas Penn is 6-1 this season when winning the doubles point -- including its victory over Dartmouth -- the Quakers are 3-6 when failing to capture it. In the Red and Blue's three Ivy League defeats, Penn lost all three doubles points. The Quakers were swept by Harvard and Brown 3-0 and fell 2-1 to Yale. "We haven't really won doubles all year," Penn co-captain Rob Pringle said. "We're kind of accustomed to losing the doubles point and coming back in singles." Against Penn's remaining formidable trio of opponents, the Quakers cannot afford to play catch-up.

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