Tennis: Tigers win in 4-3 thrillers

“I was nervous, to be honest. I’ve been in that position a couple times before and came out on the losing end,” Bloom said. “So it was really nice to get the win and pull through for the team in this one.”

The No. 62 Tigers and No. 60 Quakers (10-2, 0-1) entered the match as two of the three Ivy League teams, along with Cornell, ranked 55th, that are in the top 65 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings.

“We knew going into the match that Penn was going to be a really tough team, and it feels great to get a victory over them to start off the Ivy League season,” senior Alex Faust said. “Each of our Ivy League matches is going to be difficult, and I think we showed a lot of toughness and determination as a team on Saturday to get the win.”

The victory over Penn also marked the third time in four chances this season that the Tigers have beaten a higher-ranked opponent. Their only loss against a ranked opponent came to Binghamton in late February.

Princeton has not finished a season with a ranking in the 60s or better since 2001. Princeton started the season well, winning seven of its first 10 matches before losing all three matches during its spring break trip to the San Diego Invitational.

“I wouldn’t necessarily say that we weren’t successful at the San Diego Invitational,” sophomore Matt Siow said.

“Sure, we did lose three close matches, but in the grand scheme of things, it really prepared us to play outdoors since we had been stuck in Jadwin Gymnasium for five or six months,” he said.

“Sometimes you learn a lot more from losing than winning, and I feel like the lessons we learned from the losses will help us down the stretch,” Siow added. “Obviously it was good to get the losses out of the way before we started Ivies.”

Siow is also a sports writer for The Daily Princetonian.

The three losses to San Diego State, Denver and the University of Alabama at Birmingham also carried with them the all-too-familiar theme of close matches. Of the Tigers’ six losses, four have come by a score of 4-3 and the remaining two losses were 5-2.

The Tigers have viewed the close matches as opportunities, which, in the long run, allow everyone to play a more relaxed game under the pressure of a tight game, set and match.

“You have mixed feelings between being satisfied because you were so close against a good team, or utter disappointment because, at the end of the day, you lost the match,” said sophomore Matija Pecotic.

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“I think if we didn’t have those matches leading up to yesterday, we would have been a little more tentative on our shots and that would have been enough to give the match away,” he added.

This Friday, the Tigers travel to Providence, R.I., to play against Brown — which opens its Ivy League schedule against Princeton — and then bus over to New Haven, Conn., to face Yale the next day. The victory over Penn marked the beginning of the roughly three-week Ivy League stretch of seven games preceding the NCAA Regionals and Championships.

“There is always something more meaningful about this Ivy season. It is what we work for all year long. The trips are more fun, the buses are bigger and the stakes are higher,” Pecotic said.

“However, my style of playing does not change, and I’m looking to play the same kind of tennis in all my matches. Although one might think it’s impossible, I might actually scream ‘Lessgo’ a few more times in these matches,” he added.

Last year, the Tigers started off 3-0 against their regular season opponents but lost three of the final four matches. Team members are hoping the close matches provide them with the extra boost for a successful run to close the season.

“I still feel like our team hasn’t reached its potential yet. When we beat Northwestern 7-0, we were close to our highest level, but, other than that, we’ve been winning without our best performances, which is really good,” Bloom said.

“We can still improve and play better against the rest of the teams this year,” Bloom added.

The No. 55 women’s team also opened Ivy League play with a victory, taking the first step towards a defense of its conference title with a 4-3 victory at Penn. Although the Tigers suffered losses in all three doubles matches and at the top singles spot – as the Quakers’ freshman phenom, No. 20 Connie Hsu, rolled to a two-set victory over junior Hilary Bartlett – Princeton’s other singles players stepped up.

The Tigers swept the second through fifth singles positions, winning each in two sets. Senior Taylor Marable won the final and deciding match at the third position, taking a pair of tiebreakers for a straight-set victory.

Junior Alexa Krakaris lost her first match with the varsity team, winning only two games. Krakaris was pressed into action due to the injuries and off-court concerns that have affected other players.

Tougher challenges await the Tigers, who are joined in the ITA top 75 by four other Ivy League teams. The top two squads, No. 40 Brown and No. 28 Yale, will visit Princeton next weekend.