W. Tennis closes Ivies with a bang

The Quakers won a tight match with Columbia in New York, then defeated Cornell at home. Going into the last weekend of its Ivy League season, the Penn women's tennis team knew its matches against Columbia and Cornell wouldn't be easy. And despite adverse conditions -- including playing at Columbia in a cold indoor tennis bubble on clay, a surface the Quakers aren't used to -- Penn (13-10, 5-2 Ivy) came away from the weekend with two victories, winning an intense 5-4 battle with the Lions on Friday and ending the season with a 6-3 victory over the Big Red on Saturday. This weekend's wins secured at least a third-place Ivy finish for the Red and Blue, depending on Harvard's result against last-place Dartmouth on Wednesday. Penn's match against Columbia was especially important, since both teams entered the match tied for third with 3-2 Ivy records. "[The Columbia match] was a war," Penn coach Michael Dowd said. "They were a young, scrappy, nothing-to-lose kind of team. They played to win." Though freshmen make up over half of the Lions' lineup, their inexperience in Ivy matches didn't show. At No. 1 singles, Columbia freshman Laila Shetty overcame Penn's Lenka Beranova, 6-3, 6-1. And Penn senior co-captain Anastasia Pozdniakova fell to the Lions' freshman Tina Romic, 6-4, 7-6 at No. 2 singles. Though Penn sophomore Rochelle Raiss gave the Quakers their third singles loss at No. 6 singles, victories from Penn's Shubha Srinivasan, Louani Bascara and Jolene Sloat at Nos. 3, 4 and 5 singles, respectively, deadlocked the match at three-all. The Quakers needed to win two of their three doubles matches to secure the match. At No. 1 doubles, the duo of Beranova and Raiss pulled in an easy 8-3 win. Srinivasan and Penn senior co-captain Elana Gold paired up at No. 2 doubles and battled their way to 8-8, but fell 7-5 in a devastating tiebreaker. On the next court, Pozdniakova and Bascara were in a match similar to their teammates' -- but after being tied at eight, the Quakers won their match in a dramatic 7-5 tiebreaker, clinching the win for Penn. "The whole match came down to our No. 3 doubles," Beranova said. "They rocked them to the end." Then on Saturday, the Quakers faced an equally young Cornell team under a cold drizzle at Penn's Lott Courts. At No. 1 singles, Beranova lost her first set, 6-4, to Cornell freshman Suzanne Wright. Beranova struggled in the second set, hitting unnecessary shots into the net, and ultimately fell, 6-4, 6-2. "She didn't necessarily beat me," Beranova said. "I beat myself. [I could have won] if I was more consistent." Pozdniakova, Srinivasan and Sloat had little trouble with their opponents at Nos. 2, 3 and 5 singles, respectively. Sloat's victory completed an undefeated Ivy season for the sophomore. At No. 6 singles, Raiss lost the first set, 6-3, and brought the second set to five-all, but ultimately fell, 6-3, 7-5. With the match held at three-all, it was Bascara's intense three-set battle at No. 4 singles that gave the Quakers the lead heading into doubles. Bascara took the match, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3. After the singles matches, the match was moved indoors to Levy Pavilion because of the weather. The duo of Raiss and Beranova quickly sealed the match for Penn, taking the No. 1 doubles match, 8-3. "We were right on top of them from the beginning," Beranova said. "They're sleeping with the fishes tonight." At No. 2 doubles, Gold ended her collegiate tennis career with a disappointing 8-5 loss with partner Srinivasan. In her last collegiate match, Pozdniakova teamed up with Bascara at No. 3 doubles. The Quakers had little trouble taking the match, 8-2. Despite her loss, Gold believes she is ending her Penn tennis experience on a positive note. "I don't think we played our best matches [this weekend], but we showed a lot of heart," she said. "Everyone did their job. It's good to leave on a winning note."

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