Pirsu sets sights on ITA crown

The Riviera ITA/All-American Tennis Championships are tennis' top stage for singles players -- an even tougher ticket than the NCAAs.

For Penn, the spotlight will be on Alice Pirsu -- the Quakers' All-American junior standout -- who joins the top 32 players in the country this weekend in Pacific Palisades, California.

Pirsu, the Ivy League Player of the Year, received an invite to the tourney via her All-American honors a year ago.

Teammates Nicole Ptak and Sanela Kunovac competed in the qualifying brackets. Despite their strong efforts, they were not able to secure berths into the main draw with Pirsu.

Kunovac, a co-captain with Pirsu, fell to UC-Santa Barbara's Uzma Kahn in her first match.

Ptak, Penn's No.3 player, turned some heads last weekend, notching two victories before falling in the qualifying round to Dea Sumantri of the University of Washington.

Ptak started the weekend with an upset victory over the No. 6 seed Monika Horvath of Pepperdine. She breezed through her second match, beating Kentucky's Jill Buckley in straight sets.

Unlike Ptak and Kunovac, Pirsu is a returning performer and is ready to gun for the national crown.

Earlier this year, she was the runner-up at the Cissie Leary Memorial, where 15 of the top 100 players were competing.

Pirsu also has already defeated Old Dominion's Nataly Cahana, a top-10 ranked player. Cahana advanced to the finals of last year's Riviera ITA/All American championships, before falling to Florida's Jessica Lehnhoff in the championship round.

Lehnhoff was the same player who knocked off Pirsu in the round of 16 of last year's NCAA singles championships.

Penn coach Michael Dowd, who has led the Red and Blue to consecutive Ivy League titles, is not surprised by the national attention Pirsu has been receiving.

"She is a no nonsense type of player. She works extremely hard on and off the court," Dowd said. "She sets an absolutely great example for the team."

The team, which next competes against Duke on Oct. 24, is looking to fulfill lofty expectations. Penn is returning all six starters from a team that went undefeated in the Ivies.

"We want to repeat as Ivy League champs obviously," Dowd said. "That is our number one goal. But this team is at the national level. We are going to keep pushing."

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