Men's Tennis Edged by Princeton, 4-3

Princeton, N.J. - The Quakers had the victory in their sights on Sunday but couldn't complete the comeback attempt against Princeton, falling to the Tigers 4-3 in their first Ivy League match of the season.

Penn found itself up 1-0 early, but wins by Princeton in three of the next four finishes put the Tigers back in front before a win at No. 6 by Nikola Kocovic tied the teams at three apiece. With the match even it came down to No. 4 singles where Augie Bloom and junior Phil Law battled it out. Law dropped the first set 6-4 but came back to take the second by the same margin and force a third set. In the final set, Bloom was able to come through with the 7-5 win, leading Princeton to victory.

Unlike the team's match against St. John's, the Red and Blue captured the doubles point by getting wins at No. 1 and No. 2. The duo of Hicham Laalej and Eugen Brazil won 8-4 at No. 1 and in the second spot the freshman twosome of Zach Katz and Ivan Turudic won 8-5.

Armed with the 1-0 lead going into singles, the Quakers dropped No. 3 singles to tie the match at one. A straight-set win by Ivan Turudic at No. 3, 6-2, 6-4 made it 2-1, but Princeton responded by handing senior Hicham Laalej his first defeat of the season and then taking down Jason Lin at No. 5 in straight sets.

Kocovic came through with the 6-3, 1-6, 6-1 victory to tie it at three before the late match battle at the fourth position.

Penn falls to 10-2 and 0-1 in the Ivy League with the loss while Princeton improves to 8-6 overall and 1-0 in league play.

Singles
Order of finish: 2,3,1,5,6,4
1. Matija Pecotic (Prin) def. Hicham Laalej (Penn), 6-3, 6-2
2. Matt Spindler (Prin) def. Eugen Brazdil (Penn), 6-1, 6-1
3. Ivan Turudic (Penn) def. Matt Siow (Prin), 6-2, 6-4
4. Augie Bloom (Prin) def. Phil Law (Penn), 6-4, 4-6, 7-5
5. Dan Richardson (Prin) def. Jason Lin (Penn), 6-3, 7-5
6. Nikola Kocovic (Penn) def. Alex Faust (Prin), 6-3, 1-6, 6-1

Doubles
Order of finish: 3,2,1
1. Brazdil/Laalej (Penn) def. Pecotic/Siow (Prin), 8-4
2. Zach Katz/Turudic (Penn) def. Bloom/Faust (Prin), 8-5
3. Michael Lin/Spindler (Prin) def. Zach Gorn/Kocovic (Penn), 8-1