A freshman won his flight in the tournament. A transfer defeated a starter on a likely top-20 team. A doubles team sliced through the field.
Penn coach Nik DeVore could not have asked much more from his men's tennis team. With his team's captain and lone senior Jonathan Boym left in Philadelphia due to what Boym called "in-house reasons," DeVore got a chance to see what his young squad could do in two tournaments this weekend.
Several of Penn's top players went to the USTA Intercollegiate Tournament at Flushing, N.Y., while other members of the team participated in the local City Six Championships, comprising the Big 5 and Drexel. The results in both tournaments came out favorably for the Quakers.
"It's pretty promising considering we have just started school, had one week of practice and played two tournaments," DeVore said in a phone message.
According to Boym, the story of the weekend was the fantastic play of junior Adam Schwartz, who made it all the way to the championship round in the third flight at the USTA Intercollegiate.
Schwartz noted that his first match of the tournament was key, as he saved three match points in the third set against Marist junior Loic Sessagesimi, winning 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (6). Gutting out the victory gave Schwartz the confidence to play his way into the finals, where he lost to Alabama's John Lewis 6-7, 6-1, 6-4.
The USTA Intercollegiate was not just a successful weekend for Schwartz. Junior transfer Hicham Laleej went 2-1, including a 6-1, 7-5 victory over Alabama's Michael Jung, someone who Laleej speculated could end up being ranked in the top 100.
Overall, the Quakers went 12-7 in Flushing.
"It was great for a lot of the guys to see how we can compete against the Ivy Leagues . and also against a couple of top teams in the country," Laleej said.
Some of the younger players also had an opportunity to strut their stuff at the City Six Championships.
The Quakers were big winners at that tournament as well, as both freshman Jason Lin and the doubles team of sophomores Zach Gorn and Dmitry Bury captured titles.
Lin didn't drop a set throughout the tournament, capping off his weekend with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Temple's Dimitry Vizhunov. Gorn and Bury had a tougher road but ended up on the winning end of a 9-7 match against Temple's Nathan Spunda and Rich Valasquez in the championship match.
The positive results this weekend had the team buzzing. Hicham said he could see the team "easily getting into" the top-75 national rankings.
Schwartz felt that Penn could improve upon its doubles play. Losing four seniors from last season adversely affected the team's chemistry on the court, he said, so the Quakers will have to spend the next few practices and tournaments ironing out those kinks.
Nevertheless, with two doubles teams making it to the semifinals and one winning it all, the Quakers still looked quite impressive.
"It was the first tournament of the year," Laalej said. "It's not the best level of tennis we're going to play, but still I saw great tennis."
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