Tennis: Women defeat No. 41 Maryland; teams prepare for ECACs

Wins by the pair of freshman Katie Goepel and senior Rachel Saiontz and the pair of senior Hilary Bartlett and freshman Lindsay Graff won Princeton the doubles point against the Terrapins. In singles, Saiontz and Goepel won in straight sets before Bartlett took down Maryland’s Cristina Stancu, the 28th-ranked player in the country, in straight sets. Graff would later win without losing a game, closing out the Tigers 5-2 over the Terrapins. Princeton would not lose a single match against the Scarlet Knights the next day, defeating Rutgers 7-0.

Against UNC Wilmington, the Seahawks swept the doubles point and would have swept the entire match, if not for junior Matija Pecotic, who defeated UNCW’s Chris Cooprider, its top player. Against Elon, Pecotic, sophomore Dan Richardson, freshman Zack McCourt, senior Yohei Shoji and junior Matt Spindler all picked up wins. Doubles play was skipped because the match was already decided.

The men’s team, ranked 70th in the nation, is the No. 4-seed in the tournament and will play No. 5-seed Dartmouth in the first round. The women’s team, ranked 51st in the nation, will be seeded third and will play No. 6-seed Cornell.

The men’s team is lead by Pecotic, ranked 46th in the nation, who has played exceptionally well so far this season.

“I can’t relate it to one specific thing, but I think I stayed disciplined during the off-season and made sure to work on my game and fitness,” Pecotic said. “I think my teammates have been really pushing me during practices, and the results are starting to show.”

Another important player on the men’s team is Zach McCourt, who has been playing much better as of late, having won four of his last five singles matches.

“I had to take a few months off from practicing because of a foot injury, which definitely made me miss the competition,” McCourt said. “I think the desire to just start winning again and do my best to contribute to my team’s effort this season basically motivated me to pick up my game.”

McCourt is only a freshman, which makes his success as of late even more impressive.

“The biggest transition for me has been learning to balance Princeton’s demanding academics with what is essentially a full time job. Now that I’ve learned to do it, I think I’ve made strides in maturing as both student and athlete.”

The tournament consists of three rounds. The men have a tough first round opponent in Dartmouth, and, if they win, they would most likely play No. 1-seed Harvard in an attempt to reach the finals.

“I think the most important thing for us is to believe in our abilities,” Pecotic said on what the team must do to be successful in the tournament. “I think we have the most talented team in the tournament, but talent alone does not win matches. Most of the matches are played in the mind. Once we overcome that as a team, I think we will have better team results during tournament and dual matches.”

The women are a third seed and therefore have a slightly easier path to the finals. They start off playing sixth seed Cornell and, if they win, would most likely play second seed Brown in attempt to get the finals.

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“To be successful at ECACs this weekend, I think it’s important that we play each match with the same confident mindset, never underestimating our opponents but also never giving our opponents too much credit,” Graff said. “We have to take it one match at a time without getting too far ahead of ourselves. We’ll definitely be one of the best teams there, and I think we’re all excited to show the other Ivy teams how good Princeton tennis is this year.”

Graff, like McCourt, is also facing the challenges of adjusting to college tennis.

“College tennis is in general just a lot tougher than juniors because the level of competition is substantially higher,” she said. “There aren’t too many easy matches anymore, so you really have to be ready to fight for every point. But it’s definitely much more fun because it no longer feels like an individual sport.”