TUESDAY, APRIL 10, 2007
W. tennis loses to Princeton and Penn continued from page 12 But Pautler felt the team put up a good fight against the talented Quakers. “We were very much the underdog. Two girls on the Penn team are from the (Women’s Tennis Association),” she said. “Our general goal was to let them beat us and not us beating ourselves. We wanted to make fewer errors and not give them free points. I think we did that.” In singles play, Mansur had the closest match for the Bears. She almost won her first set at third singles, but ended up losing the match 76, 6-1 to the Quakers’ Yulia Rivelis. At first singles, Pautler fell to Ekaterina Kosminskaya 6-1, 6-3 and at number two singles, Ames lost to Julia Koulbitskaya 6-2, 6-2. Finkelstein took a shot at Lenka Snajdrova at third singles, but was defeated, 6-1, 6-4. Penn’s Charlotte Tansill defeated Ellis, 6-0, 6-2 at fi fth singles and Tansill’s teammate, Lauren Sadaka, dismissed Sorokko, 63, 6-0 at sixth singles. Teaming up for doubles did not help Bruno’s battle against Penn. Pautler and Mansur were close to earning a win but were unable to achieve a victory, falling 8-6 to Snajdrova and Rivelis at first singles. “We played a good match and worked hard,” Pautler said about her doubles match with Mansur. “We played smart and played out of our comfort zone. We adapted well despite
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the loss. We did what we wanted to do.” At second singles, the duo of Kirkpatrick and Ellis lost 81 to Kosminskaya and Koulbitskaya. Finkelstein and Sorokko were overwhelmed by Amanda Avedissian and Tansill, falling 8-1. The Bears will try to bounce back from the dismal weekend and gain an Ivy win this weekend. Brown will play host to Cornell at 2 p.m. on Friday and will take on Columbia at noon on Saturday. Both Cornell and Columbia will be worthy opponents, but the Bears hope playing on their own territory will give them the advantage. While the team is excited to battle Columbia because both teams have a historic rivalry, Brown must not forget about Cornell. The Big Red is traditionally an automatic win for many teams, but Dubusker said Cornell is a much-improved squad and will not be a pushover this weekend. Dubusker feels the success of the team lies in a change in its current attitude. “We need to think, ‘We are the better team today,’” she said. “Anything can happen on any given day. We can’t let our past results predict our future results.” Despite the tough weekend, Brown hopes to defeat its opponents next weekend. “We’re not a team full of expros or full of superstars,” she continued. “But we’re a team that can surprise people.”
Mahrtian Encounters: Reflections on the Masters continued from page 12 suggested he was intimidated. On the other hand, I do agree that Tiger choked a little bit, but if there was a moment or two where he truly lost the Masters, it was not on Sunday, as some pundits would suggest. It was at the end of Thursday’s and Saturday’s rounds, both of which finished with him bogeying 17 and 18. Take away those four extra strokes, and Tiger finishes at 1 under par instead of 3 over. Yes, his Sunday round was mediocre, but he would have been in much better position to begin with had he not hiccupped at the end of two of his first three rounds. Those who follow golf should give Zach Johnson his due and recognize what he did: He took Tiger’s best punch and never looked back. But do not count on a similar scenario playing itself out for the rest of the major season. Tigers rarely choke on their prey. Could this be the end of Mickelson? Phil Mickelson’s name was absent from the water-cooler talk surrounding the Masters this past weekend. In fact, he has failed to even sniff the top of the leader board at any significant tournament for what seems like the past year. When he choked at last year’s U.S. Open, I didn’t think then that it would set him back, but he clearly has not been the same golfer since. When he was asked about his meltdown at Winged Foot and its effect on his psyche following his final round Sunday, he hesitated for a good 10 seconds, which was enough for me to believe that he has not recovered. It’s good that he got over his slump at the majors, because I’m not sure he will win another one.
Some suggest changes to televised golf While it souands like he has a true passion for the game, Jim Nantz just does not do it for me as lead commentator for the Masters. Come to think of it, I’m not his biggest fan when it comes to his work in football or college basketball either. Don’t get me wrong — I think the man has a nice voice and good command of his surroundings — but he’s like vanilla ice cream, satisfactory at first, but after a while, you start yearning for alternatives. Those of you who read the Sports Guy blog are aware of how much momentum the Gus Johnson Bandwagon has gained in recent weeks following yet another stellar showing on his part during the NCAA basketball tournament. Though I’m not the first to suggest it, I would like to restate how fantastic it would be to get him covering golf. He would add some serious color to the game — both liter-
ally and figuratively — and the fans would be worked up into the same frenzy that surrounds constant-action sports like football and basketball. Speaking of college basketball announcers who would make great golf broadcasters, I would love to see Verne Lundquist team up with Bill Raftery on the 16th hole of Augusta National. Lundquist has already proved to be one of the best overall play-by-play men in the business (he’s the best in my opinion), and Raftery’s catch-phrases of “A little kiss” and “Send it in, big fella” are perfectly applicable to a finesse sport like golf. All I can say is that if Gus Johnson is seen roaming the fairways at the U.S. Open, someone up there likes me.
Chris Mahr ’07 and his columns are never absent from the water-cooler talk — among his friends, anyway.