Penn - 7 Army - 0
Despite moving up five slots to No. 36 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association National Rankings, the Penn women's tennis team seemed to be worried before its match yesterday against Army.
Before taking on the Cadets, coach Michael Dowd talked to the members of his team about not letting the highest ranking in Penn history get to their heads.
"All of the work we do you don't want to lose because they played harder -- that's a sin," Dowd said. "In this match the key is that we have to want to win it."
In the end, there was no reason to worry.
The Quakers heeded Dowd's words as they demolished Army, 7-0, in Penn's first home contest of 2002.
The Quakers (2-1) dropped their only match of the day on the doubles side, as the Cadets' (0-1) Annie Coller and Ali Rohr snuck past Penn junior Raluca Ciulei and freshman Shelah Chao, 8-6.
"Army came out playing agressive since they have nothing to lose," sophomore Rachel Shweky said.
The victory by Coller and Rohr was the first ever for a Cadets player over a member of the Quakers. Since the two teams began playing each other in 1994, Penn has won all eight meetings in shutout victories.
The Red and Blue did, however, easily grab the other two doubles matches to win the doubles point, as Shweky and sophomore Nicole Ptak dominated Melissa Sentelle and and Melanie Bundoc, 8-3, and freshmen Kate Williams and Linda Leibfarth cruised past Maelynn Bernosky and Marissa Limisaio, 8-1.
In fact, Ptak was so dominant in her performance in the doubles match that Dowd moved her to the No. 1 spot yesterday instead of the originally-slotted Sanela Kunovac.
Ptak did not disappoint in her role at No. 1, cruising to a 6-3, 6-1 victory.
The Cadets' coach, Paul Peck, said that his team was a bit disorganized playing for the first time this season.
"This is our first game of the season, so we're making more unforced errors," Peck said. "Against a good team like Penn our problem is that during these long points we lose our patience."
The rest of the Quakers cruised through their matches as well, as Kunovac, Shelah Chao, Michelle Yeh, Kate Williams and Linda Leibfarth all won their singles matches without a problem. Only No. 6 Leibfarth was pushed, prevailing, 6-3, 7-6 in a hotly contested second set.
The Quakers dominated yesterday despite not playing with star sophomore Alice Pirsu. She was held out of the match due to a sore right elbow.
"We wished we could have had Alice, but -- remember -- we played without her last year and we were still Ivy League champs," Dowd said.
The Quakers are looking like the favorites to win the Ivy League once again this year.
The Red and Blue are currently the only Ivy League team ranked in the top-35, although Harvard is close behind at No. 39. Yale is the only other Ancient Eight team in the top-75, sliding in at the No. 57 slot.
The Quakers next return to action on Feb. 8 when they host Seton Hall at Levy Pavilion at 3 p.m.
The following day, they host intrastate rival Penn State at noon.
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