Princeton University Athletics
Men's Tennis to Open ECAC Championship Friday
February 10, 2016 | Men's Tennis
Riding a five-match win streak, the Princeton men's tennis team will head to Penn for the ECAC Championships Friday through Sunday.
"The ECAC is always a great event, particularly since it provides a tournament and conference championship feel," Princeton coach Billy Pate said. "As always, it's a balanced field and presents a great opportunity for us. Brown will be a tough opponent as they are well-coached and will certainly come prepared on Friday night."
The Tigers opened their season with three matches against Big Ten teams, falling to now-ranked Wisconsin (No. 74) and Michigan (No. 54) before getting a win over current No. 62 Iowa. Princeton then swept a four-match home weekend against Navy, Georgetown, NJIT and Buffalo with no score closer than 5-2.
This weekend's ECAC event was originally scheduled to be hosted by Columbia, but with the Lions in the ITA National Team Indoor competition, the venue shifts to Penn and the field will have seven Ivy teams plus St. John's. Four of the eight, including No. 32 Harvard, No. 34 Dartmouth, No. 45 Princeton and No. 60 Cornell, are ranked.
Teams that win their first-round matches will play three times over the weekend, with a semifinal Saturday and a final or a third-place match Sunday. Teams that fall in the first round will play just two matches, with a consolation match Saturday.
Princeton has competed in the ECAC Championship the last eight years and nearly annually since 1996, and the Tigers won the event in 2001. A year ago, Princeton won its ECAC opener against Cornell before losing to Harvard and winning its final match against Brown. The last time the Tigers made the ECAC final was in 2008, getting wins over UMBC, Yale and Brown before a loss to Penn State.
| Teams listed in seeding order |  Harvard |
 Dartmouth |
 Princeton |
 Cornell |
 St. John's |
 Brown |
 Penn |
 Yale |
| Match Details | Possible Sunday opponent | Possible Saturday opponent | Up to three matches, Friday-Sunday | Possible Sunday opponent | Possible Sunday opponent | Friday, 5 p.m. | Possible Saturday opponent | Possible Sunday opponent |
| Record | 6-3 | 5-3 | 5-2 | 1-5 | 8-1 | 4-1 | 2-4 | 4-2 |
| ITA Team Ranking (Feb. 3) |
32 | 34 | 45 | 60 | NR | NR | NR | NR |
| ITA Individual Rankings (Feb. 10) |
None | (50) Dovydas Sakinis (49) Sakinis/Roko Glasnovic |
(123) Alex Day | None | (92) Lucas Hejhal | None | None | (101) Tyler Lu |
| Last Meeting vs. Princeton | 2015, 4-3 Harvard at Princeton | 2015, 5-2 Dartmouth at Princeton | -- | 2015, 4-3 Princeton at Cornell | 2013, 5-2 Princeton at Princeton | 2015, 6-1 Princeton at Brown | 2015, 6-1 Princeton at Princeton | 2015, 6-1 Princeton at Yale |
| Streak vs. Princeton | Harvard, 1 | Dartmouth, 2 | -- | Princeton, 4 | Princeton, 1 | Princeton, 7 | Princeton, 1 | Princeton, 8 |