W. Tennis' Pirsu going where no Quaker has gone before

In only her sophomore year and her first year playing tennis for Penn, Alice Pirsu, the top singles player on the women's tennis team, has already set a standard of excellence for the Quakers that might stand for years to come.

And this year, she has led the Quakers to another first, as she became the first Penn athlete ever to qualify for the Omni Hotels Indoor National Championship at Southern Methodist.

"This is great for the program and for Alice," Penn coach Mike Dowd said. "She's in an elite group of players and we've never had a player get this far."

Pirsu begins the first round of the Indoor National Championships today against the fourth-seeded player in the field, UCLA's Sara Walker.

This weekend's tournament is the second of three national championships throughout the year for college tennis. In the first championship in October -- the Riviera All-America Championships -- Pirsu won three matches but lost in the second round of the qualifying tournament.

The third championship of the year is the NCAA Championships in May.

The win or go home format in this second national championship tournament features a 32-woman field -- 16 finalists from the eight regions, 12 at-large selections, the Riviera champion, the winner of the ITA Small College Championships and two wild-card selections by SMU and Omni Hotels.

"Everyone in this tournament is a world-class player," Dowd said.

After winning the Riviera Championships in October, Florida's Jessica Lehnhoff is the favorite to win this weekend's contest. Yet she will also have to contend with teammates Lindsay Dawaf and Alexis Gordon, both of whom could easily take the title.

"The beauty of this tournament is that anyone can win," Dowd said. "Anyone can beat anyone else on any given day."

In this competitive atmosphere, any unforced errors can have dire results. At the ITA Regional held at the Levy Tennis Pavilion last week, Pirsu relinquished a 4-0 lead in the first set of the finals due to several costly mental mistakes. She ended up losing in straight sets to Harvard's Courtney Bergman, 7-5, 6-1.

Yet the Penn sophomore is quick to point out that she is fully capable of playing a well-rounded mental game.

"I'm looking to concentrate on every point as its own," Pirsu said. "Usually when I do that, results usually come on their own."

Pirsu has faced elite competition throughout her career, both this year and during her experience on the WTA tour. Her talent under pressure has been tested this fall, and will be taken to another level beginning today.

"Alice is beginning to be more consistent and match tough," Dowd said. "She is beginning to gain confidence and momentum."

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