W. Tennis to finsih with Empire Ivies

Penn visits Columbia and hosts Cornell to end its Ivy League season. The Penn women's tennis team (11-10, 3-2 Ivy League) will bring its up-and-down season to a close this weekend when it heads to New York City to play Columbia on Friday and returns home to face Cornell on Saturday. Though both Ivy rivals have young teams -- freshmen make up half of the lineup for both the Lions and the Big Red -- Penn coach Mike Dowd believes that winning both matches this weekend will be a challenging task. The Penn-Columbia faceoff is especially important, as both teams currently hold 3-2 Ivy records and are tied for third place in the league standings. The Lions' Ivy victories include an 8-1 triumph over Brown on April 14, and a close 5-4 victory over Dartmouth on April 8. "It's gonna be a war ," Dowd said of the Columbia match. "[Columbia's] team is hungry and enthusiastic. I expect a big fight from them, especially since it's at their place." To get ready for Columbia's clay courts, the Quakers practiced on clay at a local country club yesterday. Penn sophomore Louani Bascara believes there will be a noticeable difference playing on clay courts -- which slows down the pace of the ball and the game. "Columbia definitely has a home court advantage," Bascara said. "Most of us don't remember the last time we played on clay before [yesterday]. They know how the courts play, and we don't. "Practice [yesterday] went well. Some of us did grow up on clay, and some of our games are more suited for clay." Because Columbia only has four tennis courts, the match is likely to be especially lengthy. After the match, the Quakers have to drive back to Penn, where they will host Cornell the next day at the Lott Courts. "We'll be getting home really late [on Friday]," Penn senior co-captain Elana Gold said. "But I think we can handle it just fine." Last year, Penn swept the Big Red 9-0 in Ithaca. But even though Cornell currently holds an unimpressive 1-4 Ivy record, many of their Ancient Eight matches have been close. Dartmouth edged Cornell 5-4 on April 7, and Yale beat the Big Red by the same score a week later. Their sole Ivy victory was an 8-1 win over Brown on April 14. "[Cornell] is much improved since last year," Gold said. "But we can only control how we play this weekend." Though Dowd expects both of this weekend's matches to be close, he believes the Quakers are ready and able to pull off two wins. "The strength of both [Columbia and Cornell] is their depth, and that's our strength," Dowd said. "This will be a good test for us." Though Penn's Ivy finish this season depends on how the seasons of Harvard, Columbia and Yale end up, the Quakers are likely to secure third place or higher. "I wouldn't say I'm happy with [a third-place finish], but I would say we did our best," Gold said. "[Third place is] a respectable place to be. The league is tough." Last year, Penn nearly went undefeated in the Ivies, falling only to Harvard, 8-1, and finished in second place. The Quakers fell to Harvard again this past Saturday, but by a less upsetting score of 5-4. The match had two three-setters in singles and came down to doubles. "If we play as well as we did against Harvard, we should beat both these teams," Dowd said. "We don't want to let up. But if we don't play well, anything can happen."

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