W. Tennis sees Ivy title hopes slide in loss

In its first home Ivy weekend of the season, the Penn women's tennis team had little trouble overpowering Dartmouth, 7-2, on Friday. But the Quakers' three-match Ivy winning streak ended when they fell to Harvard in a tough 5-4 battle the next day. Though the Ivy League title is pretty much out of the picture for the Red and Blue (10-11, 3-2 Ivy League) -- as Princeton, which beat the Quakers 6-3, is currently undefeated -- Penn coach Michael Dowd believes that regardless of scores, his team's performance is as good as ever. "We played very well this weekend, particularly in singles," Dowd said. "We fought very hard. I don't think we can win the title, but we could finish at two or at least three." Saturday's matches against Harvard were held at the Levy Pavilion because of the rain, and even though Penn played well in singles, the Quakers' top players did not come away with wins in the close matches. At No. 1 singles, the Crimson's Sanja Bajin had a killer backhand and got into seemingly endless baseline rallies with Penn's Lenka Beranova. Bajin eventually took the match, 6-2, 6-3. At No. 2 singles, Penn's Anastasia Pozdniakova fell to Harvard's Vedica Jain, 7-5, in the first set. Pozdniakova came back and took the second set 6-3 before Jain overpowered her 6-1 in the third and final set. "When somebody's just better than you, there's nothing you can do about it," Pozdniakova said. "You just have to take it as it is." Penn's Shubha Srinivasan, Jolene Sloat and Rochelle Raiss had little trouble winning at Nos. 3, 5 and 6 singles, respectively against Harvard. When Penn was up 3-2 in singles, Louani Bascara faced the Crimson's Jennie Timoney in a three-setter that lasted nearly three hours before Timoney finished the match off, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2. The Harvard players, who had been cheering feverishly for Timoney in that last singles match, seemed to gain momentum from her win. Though Penn's Elana Gold and Srinivasan overcame their opponents, 8-1, at No. 3 doubles, the Crimson's 8-3, 8-0 wins on the first two doubles courts secured the win. "That match could have gone either way very easily," Harvard coach Gordon Graham said. "Any of those three-setters could have gone either way. Penn's tough. That Louani, what a competitor. Penn's got a good team, and we were lucky to win." Penn started the weekend off on a better note at the Lott Courts by easily taking five of the six singles matches against the Big Green. Most Quakers in the singles lineup quickly took the lead in their matches, never to look back. At No. 1 singles, Beranova easily overpowered Dartmouth's Rebecca Dirksen, 6-0, 6-2. The Big Green's Sarita Yardi gave Pozdniakova trouble at No. 2 singles, though. Yardi was up at the net almost every point, and she had no trouble executing nearly impossible-to-get drop shots and thunderous smashes at the net. Yardi took Pozdniakova, 6-2, 6-3. Srinivasan, Bascara, Sloat and Raiss all dominated their matches at Nos. 3, 4, 5 and 6 singles, respectively. After singles, Dartmouth had already lost the match, but they still fought hard in doubles. After being up 4-1 at No. 1 doubles, the Penn duo of senior co-captain Gold and Beranova dropped a few games to Dartmouth's Dirksen and Allison Taff, bringing the score to a close 5-4. Gold took control whenever she was at the net, though, smacking the ball at her opponents' feet or smashing the ball right between them. The Penn duo ultimately took the match, 8-4. "Dartmouth is known for their doubles," Gold said. "They have good hands at the net and good chemistry with each other." At No. 2 doubles, Pozdniakova and Bascara fell behind, 2-1. The Quakers fought their way back to 7-7 against the Big Green's Yardi and Caroline Bashleben, but the Dartmouth pair eventually took the match, 9-8. Srinivasan and Sloat fended off the net-happy Dartmouth duo of Courtney Smalley and Carolyn Roth at No. 3 doubles and took the match, 8-6. "Penn came out to play today," Dartmouth coach Jennifer Callen said of Friday's match. "They were very competitive and played tough from the beginning to the end. They never let up."

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