W. Tennis claims two of three matches

For the Penn women's tennis team, the storm came early this weekend. On Saturday afternoon, the No. 39 Quakers lost a tight battle to No. 23 Virginia Commonwealth, 4-3, then plowed past two unranked teams -- Binghamton, 7-0, Saturday evening, and Old Dominion, 6-1, on Sunday. Although the match against Virgina Commonwealth did not go the Quakers' way, it was thrilling nonetheless. After taking the doubles point by winning two of the three matches, Penn and VCU slugged it out in the singles. The Rams had won three of six singles matches to level the score at three matches apiece. It came down to Beatriz Cabrera and Raluca Ciulei at the No. 4 slot. Despite Ciulei saving four match points, Cabrera eked out the victory, 7-5, 1-6, 7-6 (6-2), sealing the day for the visitors in a match which took over three hours. "VCU had some Spanish players that are very steady players and like to stay very long on the court," said freshman Raluca Ciocina, who had to retire from her match due to wrist pain. "Last year we lost to VCU, 7-0, so our coach was really trying to get us focused for this match and to avenge that loss," sophomore Brandy Washington said. "We knew we had to go out and fight." Other highlights included Penn No. 1 and nationally-ranked No. 14 Alice Pirsu sweeping Silvia Urickova aside, 6-0, 6-2. It would be the first of three wins on the weekend for Pirsu, including a three-set battle with Old Dominion's Natalie Cahana. "[All] the teams are not bad," Ciocina said. "I don't know if the ranking has so much to do with it." Washington was not quite as diplomatic to her defeated opponents, however. Binghamton "was for the players' confidence," she said. Washington played Saturday, for the first time this season, at the No. 3 doubles and No. 6 singles slots. "That was really exciting," Washington said. "It was a great all around day, getting some confidence and playing time under my belt." As all the matches were played indoors at the Levy Tennis Pavillion, the snow did not have much effect on the teams, other than setting up some travel problems for the three visiting schools. Old Dominion's squad could not get out of Philadelphia on Sunday evening because of the blizzard. "It was hard getting to the courts, but after that it was okay inside," Ciocina said. "It was a little bit cold though." However, The Penn team was not effected. "We've been training inside pretty much the entire winter," Washington said. "We just had to walk over [to the Levy Pavillion] in the snow, which wasn't too fun," she said. "But we survived." The team will next play on Tuesday, Feb. 25, against Seton Hall at the Levy Pavillion.

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