Princeton University Athletics
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Men's Tennis Hosts Columbia With Ivy Title Hopes Still Alive
April 19, 2007 | Men's Tennis
Both Princeton and Columbia, who play Friday at 2 p.m. at the Lenz Tennis Center in the Tigers' final home match (rain site: Jadwin Gym), enter the final weekend of the regular season with a chance at the Ivy League men's tennis title.
The No. 70 Tigers (11-5) and No. 72 Lions (13-4) are both 4-1 in Ivy play, a game behind 5-0 and 69th-ranked Penn. All three teams could win the league title outright or share the title, and mathematically there could even be a three-way-tie or a four-way tie for the league title (with Harvard).
Penn plays Cornell Friday in Philadelphia. If the Quakers win, they will clinch at least a share of the Ivy title. If Penn wins both Friday and Sunday at Columbia, the Quakers would win the outright league title.
The Tigers, who fell to Penn 5-2 in their Ivy opener March 31, will end the regular season at Cornell on Sunday at noon. Princeton could win the Ivy title outright by winning both of its matches this weekend, but only if Penn were to lose both to Cornell and Columbia.
Friday's match is the final home match for Princeton's two seniors, Sratha Saengsuwarn and Ted Mabrey. Saengsuwarn has had an impressive senior year at No. 2 singles for Princeton, compiling a 10-3 record at the No. 2 spot this spring. Mabrey has made his mark at Princeton as a standout doubles player throughout his career, and he has nine doubles wins this season, tied for most on the team.
Princeton has won four straight matches since that defeat against Penn, including a 4-3 victory against No. 74 Harvard this past Saturday at the Lenz Center. The win was the Tigers' first against Harvard in a spring dual match since the 1997 season. Freshman George Carpeni, playing at No. 3, clinched the match for Princeton with two third-set tiebreaks in progress.
The Tigers' scheduled match against UNC Wilmington Monday afternoon was postponed due to the inclement weather and flooding in the Princeton area from this past weekend's storm.
There was a tie between Brown and Penn for the 2006 Ivy men's tennis title. Brown won a playoff between the two teams, 4-3, to earn the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.