Tennis: Doubleheader provides swift sweep for Princeton

“This is the first doubleheader I’ve been a part of, so it was a grind,” junior Matt Siow said. “It was tough in the beginning to figure out two lineups that gave us the best chance of winning without overusing players.”

Siow is also a sports writer for the Daily Princetonian.

Coming off a loss in the consolation final of the ECAC Championship tournament last weekend, the Princeton men looked to bounce back and defend Jadwin Gymnasium this weekend. The Tigers got off to a hot start in their match against Buffalo (1-6) by sweeping the doubles point, which included an 8-2 victory by the No. 24 duo of juniors Matt Spindler and Siow. Junior No. 59 Matija Pecotic and seniors Ravi Yegya-Raman, Yohei Shoji and Coleman Crutchfield added singles victories to help Princeton defeat Buffalo 5-2.

The morning victory over Buffalo proved to be a good warm up for the Tigers, as they dominated Fairleigh Dickinson 7-0. The Knights (2-4) found themselves down quickly as Princeton swept the doubles point, and Fairleigh Dickinson was unable to recover after that. Princeton was relentless on the singles courts, with freshman Ben Quazzo’s 5-7, 6-4, 10-7 victory over Mark Hemy the only match to go three sets. The other Tigers to win their singles matches include Pecotic, who completed a perfect day by defeating Ibrahim Shams 6-4, 6-2, Spindler, sophomores Augie Bloom and Dan Richardson and freshman Zack McCourt.

In playing two matches in one day, Princeton faced a unique set of challenges in forming the lineups most conducive to success.

“We had a couple last-minute lineup changes, and this showed that a couple of guys were really willing to put the team before themselves,” Siow said. “Seeing the guys put the team before themselves showed that with that kind of attitude and that kind of unselfishness, we can do a lot of great things.”

The Princeton women opened play in the Blue-Gray National Tennis Classic with a doubleheader on Saturday, facing No. 58 Illinois (6-2) before playing Oklahoma State (5-2) in the afternoon. Both matches were a singles-first format, and the Tigers were unable to force doubles play as both the Illini and Cowboys won four singles matches. Princeton was unable to score a point against Illinois, as the Illini won the first four matches to be decided and took the match 4-0. The sole Tiger to take her opponent to three sets was No. 84 senior Hilary Bartlett, who fell to Marisa Lambropolous 6-1, 3-6, 6-2.

Princeton was unable to field a sixth player against Oklahoma State, but it was able to score a point with a victory by junior Monica Chow over Kanyapat Narattana 6-3, 7-6(7). The Cowboys won the remaining matches and defeated the Tigers 4-1.

Princeton fared better the following day against No. 57 Southern Methodist University (1-6), but still fell 4-3. The Tigers took advantage of the opportunity to play doubles, winning the doubles point with victories by the No. 49 pairing of freshman Katie Goepel and senior Rachel Saiontz and the duo of Chow and freshman Joan Cannon. Chow and Cannon continued their success on the singles courts with straight set victories of 6-1, 6-0 over Perri Anderson and 6-2, 6-1 over Kris Roberts, respectively. The Mustangs won the remaining four matches, however, including a victory over Saiontz when she retired in just the second game of the match.

The men return to play next Friday when they host Temple before traveling to New York to face St. John’s on Sunday. The women will travel to Texas to play Texas Christian University on Saturday before facing SMU in a rematch on Sunday.