PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - The William and Mary men's tennis team dropped its second straight road contest at a nationally-ranked Ivy League foe, falling to No. 51 Penn, 5-2, on Saturday afternoon at the recently renovated Levy Tennis Center. Junior Scott Huang and sophomore Addison Appleby highlighted the Tribe effort with three-set singles victories. W&M fell to 6-5 on the year, while Penn, who was coming off a 5-2 win over No. 16 Penn State last week, improved to 5-0.

The Quakers took the opening point of the match, winning a trio of tight doubles matches. Penn's Marshall Sharp and Thomas Spratt outlasted the freshman duo of Christian Cargill and Lars de Boer in a tiebreaker at the No. 2 post to start doubles. The Penn pair of Nicolas Podesta and Jeremy Court clinched the doubles point for the Quakers, downing the Tribe senior pair of Will Juggins and Aaron Chaffee, 6-4, at the top spot.

In singles, Penn won the top four singles matches in straight sets to claim the victory. Appleby won his ninth match of the season, rallying for a come-from-behind three-set win at No. 5. Penn's Josh Pompan won the opening set, 6-3, before the Tribe sophomore bounced back with a 6-4 win in the second. With the team result already decided, Appleby won the third-set super tiebreaker, 10-8, for his fifth dual-match victory of the season.

Huang needed three sets as well, but upped his singles ledger to 10-5 with a victory at the No. 6 post. The Tribe junior won a close first set, 7-5, before Blaine Willenborg rallied with a 6-2 triumph in the second set. Huang outlasted his Quaker counterpart, 10-8, in the third-set super breaker. He improved to 6-2 in dual-match play with the victory.

The Tribe returns to the McCormack-Nagelsen Tennis Center and opens a 10-match homestand with a doubleheader on Saturday, Feb. 14. W&M hosts Binghamton at 10 a.m., before welcoming Villanova to Williamsburg at 4 p.m. The Green and Gold will hosts its second doubleheader in as many days on Sunday, Feb. 15. The Tribe meets Hampton at 10 a.m. with a 4 p.m. tilt against Longwood to follow.

Singles
No. 1 - Nicolas Podesta (Penn) def. Christian Cargill (W&M) – 7-5, 6-2
No. 2 - Vim De Alwis (Penn) def. Will Juggins (W&M) – 6-4, 6-4
No. 3 - Jeremy Court (Penn) def. Damon Niquet (W&M) – 6-1, 6-0
No. 4 - Matt Nardella (Penn) def. Lars de Boer (W&M) – 6-3, 7-6 (1)
No. 5 - Addison Appleby (W&M) def. Josh Pompan (Penn) – 3-6, 6-4, 10-8
No. 6 - Scott Huang (W&M) def. Blaine Willenborg (Penn) – 7-5, 2-6, 10-8
Order of finish: 3, 2, 1, 4, 5, 6

Doubles
No. 1 - Podesta/Court (Penn) def. Juggins/Chaffee (W&M) – 6-4
No. 2 - Sharp/Spratt (Penn) def. Cargill/de Boer (W&M) – 7-6
No. 3 - De Alwis/Nardella (Penn) def. Niquet/Appleby (W&M) – 7-5
Order of finish: 2, 1, 3