Tennis may seem like an individual's game for the casual fan, but for the Penn women's tennis team at this weekend's ECAC Championships, the group effort of the college game quickly made itself apparent in the Quakers' march to the finals.
The team aspect of the ECAC tournament is unique to the fall schedule in that it is the only tournament where the players advance in the brackets as a squad rather than individually.
"This was a perfect opportunity for everyone to get a taste of how each match counts for both yourself and the team," Penn captain Sanela Kunovac said.
After steamrolling past James Madison, Dartmouth and Virginia, the Quakers came up short in the finals against Ivy rival Harvard.
Last year, Penn fell to top-seeded Virginia in the ECAC finals. This year, however, would be quite a different story.
Despite being the lower-ranked team against Virginia in the semifinals of this year's matchup, No. 3 Penn quickly jumped on the Cavaliers, convincingly defeating them, 6-1.
Powered by sophomore Alice Pirsu, the team dominated Virginia in virtually every match. Pirsu teamed up with Rachel Schweky for a victory in doubles over Virginia's Jennifer Tuchband and Dora Bechliwanis. Pirsu also captured a singles win over the Cavaliers' Henriette Williams.
"The team rose to expectations and we were able to equal the result that we had last year," Pirsu said. "We got a feeling of how well we would play, and we looked good."
Yet Penn's victory over Virginia would be the team's last good news for the weekend. The Red and Blue were shut out, 7-0, by Harvard in the finals of the tournament.
And that wasn't all that went wrong for the Quakers. Earlier in the week, Kunovac suffered a knee injury by overexerting herself on an already painful leg.
Penn's captain is waiting for more reports from the doctor, but said she will be able to compete fully by next week.
Kunovac did participate in a losing doubles match with Nicole Ptak against the Cavalier duo of Amy O'Donnell and Marta Bechliwanis.
With one more tournament in the fall season, Penn is beginning to look ahead to the spring, when it will compete in every match as a core.
There is one "I" in tennis, and only one more individual tournament for the Quakers at the end of October.
Come spring, it will be exclusively a team effort.
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