The men's tennis team took top honors in all four of its singles flights at the Penn Invitational this weekend, topping 15 teams in the national competition.
David Neff '14, Daniel Hirschberg '15 and Will Spector '15 were singles champions for the Bears, dropping only six sets total en route to their final matches. Ivy League foe Princeton was Bruno's top singles competitor, facing off against the Bears in the finals of two of these first three flights.
An unusual scenario in the Bears' fourth flight saw Lucas Da Silveira '16 and Ivan Kravtchenko '16 both reaching the final match, but the two opted to forgo the contest and accept co-champion titles. They finished their tournaments with exhibition matches against another flight instead.
The doubles teams were no slouches either, as Spector teamed with Justin To '15.5 to take second place in the "A" flight. Michael Hill '13 and Da Silveira also competed as a duo, along with Hirschberg and Kravtchenko, but both pairs fell short of the final.
The tournament brought together Ivy League competitors and non-conference teams from across the country. Throughout the weekend, Bruno battled teams from the Big Ten and other conferences it had not played against before.
"There was some really good competition," Spector said. "Some schools, like Iowa and Minnesota, we haven't ever played before, so I didn't really know what to expect."
But the Bears rose to the occasion and defeated their Big Ten competitors for the tournament title.
"It's good to play teams like this," Hirschberg said. "We held our ground pretty good, and we were successful."
Spector credited the team's success, with nine flights won in its first three tournaments, to good practices and positive attitudes.
"We had really good energy this weekend," Spector said. "We have two really good captains who have been pushing us, so our practices have been really good, and the energy out there has really helped a lot."
The successful campaign this weekend added to the team's confidence, he added. "We're making really good progress and we're going to try to keep getting better."
Though this weekend's experience against outside schools helps, Hirscherg said, the Ivy League competition remains the focal point of the team's preparations.
"The goal is to be playing well come Ivy season," he added. "Every win we can get is going to help us toward that goal."
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