Men's Tennis Narrowly Falls to Princeton

Saturday, April 10

Hanover, N.H.

2:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Princeton University

4/11/2010 7:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis

By: Dartmouth

HANOVER, NH - It was an intense day on the Topliff Courts on Saturday with the Dartmouth men's tennis team fighting till the end, but Princeton came away with a 4-3 win in Hanover on Saturday.

The Big Green got a great start from its No. 1 doubles team of senior Dan Freeman (Chatsworth, Calif.) and Michael Laser (Glencoe, Ill.) put us in front for a short time, but the Tigers fought back to win the doubles point by securing the No. 2 and No. 3 positions.

The crowd began to grow in numbers and energy toward the end of the doubles and into the singles. Freeman's match at the No. 1 spot was particularly exciting. The energy from the crowd helped bring Freeeman the first set, but the match was forced into a third and deciding set. Freeman came through after going down with some cramping at 4-5 with the Princeton player serving. Down 30-Love, he fought back to win four straight points and the match. This brought Dartmouth their first team point of the day with the score at 2-1 Princeton.

Both junior Curtis Roby (New York, N.Y.) and sophomore Chris Ho (Los Altos, Calif.) lost their first sets, but fought back to even their matches at a set apiece. Princeton was no match in the third sets against Ho and Roby and the Big Green pair rolled them over only losing one game between them. Now Dartmouth was up 3-2 with freshman Xander Centenari (Towson, Md.) up a set and 3-0 at the No. 5 spot and senior captain Jeff Friedman (Westport, Conn.) up a break 3-2 in his first set. The No. 5 Princeton player caught fire and fought back and won the tie-breaker to take it to a third set. At the No. 6 position, Friedman was forced into a tie break which he fought hard, but came up short!

Each matches went back and forth until it was 5-5 in third. At this point Centenari went down with severe leg cramps. It was also very dark so Dartmouth had to move the matches indoors. Centenari tried valiently, but could not get the legs back going and lost the next eight points to lose his match 7-5 in the third. Friedman was at 5-5 in the second when he moved inside, but could not get it going in time to salvage the match and Princeton came away with a 4-3 win.

"I have been doing this for a long time and I will say this was one of the most intense and exciting matches that I have coached at Dartmouth," said head coach Chuck Kinyon. "The guys competed as hard as anyone could ask and just came up short."

The next match for the Big Green takes place on Friday in New Haven against Yale.

TEAM DUAL MATCH TENNIS SCORE SHEET

    Dartmouth     vs.    Princeton

            Hanover

   Doubles                  Winner        Score

1    Freeman    vs.    Shoji
    Laser                 Siow               D        8-5

2    Roby    vs.    Lin
    Greif                Spindler            P        8-3

3    Ho    vs.         Pecotic
    deChatellus        Faust              P        8-6

    Singles                                         Winner        Score

1    Friedman    vs.    Brosens        D        6-2,0-6,6-4
2    Laser    vs.    Pecotic               P        6-3,6-1
3    HO    vs.    Spindler               D        4-6,6-4,6-0
4    Roby    vs.    Siow                 D        4-6,6-4,6-1
5    Centenari    vs.    Faust          P        3-6,7-6,7-5
6    Friedman    vs.    Crutchfield    P        7-6,7-5


    Dartmouth    3    Princeton    4