Princeton University Athletics
Harvard, Dartmouth Ahead for Tennis Teams in Key Ivy Series
April 06, 2010 | Men's Tennis, Women's Tennis
PRINCETON -- The halfway point of the Ivy League tennis season will come and go this weekend when the Princeton men's and women's teams face Harvard and Dartmouth.
Both Tiger squads are 3-0 after defeats of Penn, Yale and Brown. The women have not opened the Ivy at 3-0 since 2000, and the men have not done so since 2001.
The women's team (16-5, 3-0) jumped five spots to No. 28 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings released Tuesday to remain the highest-ranked team north of Virginia and east of Michigan. Both of this weekend's opponents are ranked, with Harvard at No. 53 and Dartmouth at No. 48. No new individual rankings came out this week, so Princeton's Hilary Bartlett remains at No. 72 on the singles list and No. 19 on the doubles chart with Taylor Marable.
Harvard (10-6, 2-0), Dartmouth (15-2, 2-0) and Princeton are the three women's teams still undefeated in Ivy League play heading into the weekend. In addition to their team rankings, Harvard and Dartmouth between them have two singles players and one doubles team ranked. The Crimson's Holly Cao is No. 58 and Hideko Tachibana is 121st, while the Big Green's Mary Winingham and Molly Scott are 75th on the doubles list.
The matches, beginning Friday at 2 p.m. against the Crimson and Saturday at noon against the Big Green, will be the 12th and 13th contests of the year for the Princeton women against ranked teams, and the Tigers are 8-3 in the 11 bouts so far against ranked opponents.
The women's matches will be played outside at the Lenz Tennis Center. If inclement weather occurs, the matches will be moved indoors to Jadwin Gym. The team plans to have free giveaways, food, refreshments and a serving competition open to all fans between the doubles point and singles play.
Princeton's men (7-10, 3-0) will head north to Harvard (9-10, 0-2) to meet a Crimson team ranked No. 69 on this week's chart. Friday's match against Harvard will begin at 2 p.m. while the Saturday tilt against Dartmouth (9-8, 0-2) will start at 3 p.m.
The men's side has three Ivy teams ranked, with Cornell at No. 68 and Columbia at No. 45. The Lions join Princeton as the only Ivy men's teams undefeated in league play and the teams do not meet until the Ivy regular-season finale on Apr. 18 in Manhattan. Princeton has one more home match remaining, Apr. 16 against Cornell.