This weekend, the men’s and women’s tennis teams face Brown and Yale in Ivy League conference play. The women will host Brown this afternoon and Yale on Saturday, while the men’s team looks to build on its recent momentum on the road. The men play at Brown at 2 p.m. today, then travel to New Haven, Conn. to face Yale on Saturday.
The men (11-6, 2-1 Ivy) come into this weekend on a roll, as they have gone undefeated since falling to Columbia on April 1. Last week, Cornell defeated defending Ivy League champion Harvard for the first time in 45 years, and then followed with an impressive 7-0 sweep against Dartmouth.
“We did what we should have,” head coach Barry Schoonmaker said. “We didn’t want a let down [against Dartmouth] after Harvard, and we went out and got it done. Brown and Yale are tough teams though – they were both ranked ahead of us last week – so it’ll be competitive.” With its recent wins, the Red is currently No. 71 in the ITA rankings, while Brown and Yale have since dropped out of the top-75.
When asked to explain his team’s recent success, coach Schoonmaker pointed to play of his top four singles players – senior Brett McKeon, sophomore Josh Raff, and juniors Nick Brunner and Dan Brous.
“We really revolve around the play of those four guys,” said coach Schoonmaker.
None of the top-4 players have lost in singles play since the match against Columbia. Schoonmaker also singled out freshman Kyle Doppelt, who plays in the fifth singles spot, for praise.
“Kyle’s been great for us,” said Schoonmaker. “He’s a freshman, so he’s had to work to get himself where he is right now, you know, he earned it. Since getting into the lineup, he’s only lost twice and he’s undefeated in Ivy League play right now, which is remarkable.”
The Cornell women head into their weekend matches with a 7-5 overall record (1-2 Ivy), having recently beaten Dartmouth by a score of 5-2.
“We’re really confident right now. We just had a really good weekend. To beat Brown and Yale, we’ll just have to play the way we did against Dartmouth,” head coach Laura Glitz said.
Senior Mollie Edinson echoed her coach’s sentiments and expressed optimism about the season to date.
“We started off the year undefeated for a while, but we weren’t playing the caliber of opponents we are now,” said Edinson. “It was great for confidence, but then we lost to some good teams – Syracuse, Harvard and those California teams we played over break. But all those teams have given us some good experience. We went 1-6 [in the conference] last year, but with us just last week beating Dartmouth for the first time since I’ve been here, I think we’re a team that can definitely fight for second in the Ivy League.”
Archived article by Stephen Davis
Sun Staff Writer