Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Men's Tennis to Open Season in Colorado This Weekend
January 28, 2015 | Men's Tennis
Princeton's men's tennis team will get its dual-match season underway Friday at Air Force before a match Saturday at Denver to complete the season-opening weekend.
The Tigers return their top four singles spots from the end of last dual-match season, including senior Zack McCourt and sophomores Tom Colautti, Alex Day and Josh Yablon. Those four comprised two of Princeton's three doubles teams from last season's finale, with Augie Bloom '14 and Dan Davies '14 as graduation losses from both singles and doubles.
The team's four freshmen, including Luke Gamble, Kial Kaiser, Ben Tso and Diego Vives, all saw significant playing time during the fall individual season. Gamble begins the spring ranked 105th in the nation by the ITA.
"The team is looking forward to beginning the dual match portion of our season," Princeton head coach Billy Pate said. "It's nice to have exams behind as we have been getting back into a normal practice routine preparing for our matches this weekend. Playing in Colorado, particularly in Colorado Springs, presents a bit of a challenge adjusting to the altitude and faster conditions. However, because of the intercession break, we're able to get a few practices under our belt before our first match at Air Force on Friday. We have a lot of new faces this year making their debut for our squad and we¹re excited to see how they handle themselves in a dual match situation."
Princeton faced Air Force only once in its history, back in 1970 in Princeton. The Tigers have a much more recent history with Denver, which the Tigers defeated 5-2 a year ago in Princeton after neutral-site losses in 2010 and 2011. Princeton will be the third straight Ivy opponent for Denver, which lost to Dartmouth and defeated Cornell last weekend in matches played at Dartmouth.
Saturday's match against Denver will be played at the Colorado Athletic Club - Monaco in Denver.
While the opening weekend takes Princeton two time zones away, the Tigers will be back home next weekend for a trio of matches against William & Mary, Bucknell and Furman.
| Team |  Princeton |
 Air Force |
 Denver |
| Match Date/Time | Friday at Air Force Saturday at Denver |
Friday, Jan. 30, 1 p.m. ET | Saturday, Jan. 31, 6:30 p.m. ET |
| ITA Ranking | 61st | 63rd | |
| 2015 Dual-Match Record | 0-0 | 1-1 | 3-2 |
| ITA-Ranked Players | (105) Luke Gamble | (64) Henry Craig (33) Henry Craig/Alex Gasson |
|
| Record vs. Princeton | Princeton leads 1-0 | Denver leads 2-1 | |
| Last Meeting | 1970 | 2014 |