Tennis Head Coach Gordie Ernst has long been a believer of playing tough non-conference competition to prepare his teams for the rigors of the Big East. The opponents his men’s and women’s teams faced this weekend certainly fell into this category, as the Hoyas were handed a total of four losses. On Saturday in Philadelphia, the men’s team (2-4) rallied at University of Pennsylvania after losing the doubles point and dropping the first two singles matches. The Hoyas started slowly after being swept in doubles play but were handed a victory when Penn junior Justin Fox had to retire from his match with an ankle injury. Georgetown then took two more singles matches with sophomore Will Lowell, defeating Penn senior Joseph Lok 6-1, 6-4 and junior Adam Gross taking his match 6-4, 7-5. Tied at 3-3, the match then hinged on the sixth singles spot, but senior Ted Tywang was unable to stop Penn sophomore Adam Schwartz who won 7-6, 6-2. Despite the loss, Ernst remarked that Tywang’s match was “one of the highest quality matches” that he had seen in college tennis. “Having Ted fight back from nine set points down was something special. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to take it. Had he taken it, I strongly believe that he would have won the match, and we would have had Georgetown’s first win against an Ivy [League school].” Following the close match, the men’s team then faced nationally ranked Maryland, who defeated the Hoyas 7-0 in College Park, Md., on Sunday. Georgetown lost five of the singles matches in straight sets. Lowell was the only singles player to avoid being swept, pushing Maryland sophomore David Kwon to a third set super tiebreaker, which he lost in a tight 10-8 decision. Lowell and his doubles partner, junior Kevin Walsh, provided the Hoyas with the sole highlight of the day, winning the second-spot doubles match 9-8 (8-6). In spite of the loss, Ernst declared that this weekend proves that “Georgetown is ready for DePaul and Marquette next weekend.” The Hoyas will travel to Chicago on Saturday to face off against the Blue Demons and then head up to Milwaukee for a Sunday morning tilt with the Golden Eagles. The matches will be the Hoyas’ first Big East contests of the season. eanwhile, the women’s team (1-4, 1-1 Big East) played their home-opener matches against Auburn and Dartmouth at the Army-Navy Country Club in Arlington, Va., after splitting last weekend’s away matches. The women began with a tough 7-0 loss to Auburn Saturday evening, in which freshman Elizabeth Sullivan showed flashes of strength by pushing Auburn’s freshman Gaby Beelen in a tough 6-3, 7-5 loss. Ernst was optimistic about the matches. “Auburn was a great experience for the girls, they played so well,” he said. “It was just a different level [of competition], but they stepped up and tried to take on the challenge.” There was little break for the women as they faced Dartmouth the next day at noon. Once again they were faced with a significant challenge playing an Ivy League school and traditional tennis power. According to Ernst, in spite of being swept 7-0, the team showed great promise as the younger members all kept their matches close. “The freshmen played great. Alex [Sebia], Caroline [Kuehn], Maxi [Thiels] and Elizabeth [Sullivan] all stepped up to play great close matches. They have been thrown into the fire and have been just great,” Ernst said. Next weekend, the girls take on Duquesne and Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh. Looking toward the future and being inspired by the Giants’ surprise upset of the Patriots, Ernst said, “Both teams are trying to turn around the season and go on a run. Unfortunately, I am going to have to use the Giants as our role model and not my New England Patriots.”