W. Tennis stops losing skid

(Penn - 5, Temple - 2)

Temple's women's tennis team's one-two punch of Danira Penic and Lara Ercegovic proved to be just as good as advertised.

Luckily for the Quakers, the rest of the Owls' lineup wasn't as capable.

While Croatian natives Penic, ranked 46th in the country, and Ercegovic, ranked 106th, dismantled their Penn's No. 1 Nicole Ptak and No. 2 Sanela Kunovac in matching 6-1, 6-1 scores, the Quakers swept No. 3 through No. 6 singles in the same convincing fashion.

Penn (8-6) also captured the doubles' point to provide the final 5-2 margin and snap its four- match losing skid.

"We knew ahead of time that their top two players were real good and the rest of the lineup was pretty weak," Penn freshman Michelle Yeh said. "We were expecting to sweep all of the matches after the first two singles.

"We went out and took care of business."

Taking care of business was a little more of a challenge for No. 4 Yeh than it was for the rest of the Quakers' singles victors.

While she won in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3, Yeh needed to rally in the first set after falling behind Temple's Lauren Verrall, 4-3.

"I tried to limit the errors," Yeh said. "She was hitting a lot of winners and I just knew that I had to keep the ball in play because she couldn't keep hitting winners the whole match."

Kunovac, however, found out that Ercegovic could keep drilling her shots the entire match.

Hindered by a pair of ailing knees, the sophomore captain struggled to keep pace with her talented fellow Croatian.

"She played really well," Kunovac said. "Game-wise and physically, I just wasn't there."

Kunovac's physical limitations affected her most in the match's more hotly-contested points.

"I don't think she made two errors the entire match," Kunovac said. "I had to play these really long points and being out of shape really affected me."

While Kunovac's play on the court left much to be desired, the results of her reunion off the court with her childhood rival were much more to her liking.

"We were just saying that we are going to keep in touch," Kunovac said. "We talked a lot about our families and [Temple] might be coming to practice this week to help us prepare for Princeton."

Penn will need all the preparation it can get for the Tigers, the Red and Blue's first Ivy League foe of the season.

As the defending conference champions and one of three nationally-ranked Ancient Eight teams -- Harvard is ranked 49th, with Penn at No. 52 and Brown at No. 68 -- the Quakers are expected to be in the hunt for the Ivy League crown.

What remains to be seen, however, is whether the Quakers can survive with injuries plaguing both Kunovac and No. 1 singles Alice Pirsu -- who was forced to miss Sunday's match with an elbow injury.

"Our coach was giving her time to rest her elbow, because the big match is against Princeton," Kunovac said.

Momentum will not be lacking for Saturday's big match after the Quakers' convincing win over lackluster Temple.

"You need to get a win under your belt to feel a little more at ease," Kunovac said. "Having the wind at your back before you play Princeton is really a big benefit."

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