W. Tennis | Wolf and Sadaka shine; Penn not so much

Emily Wolf and Lauren Sadaka are at two very different stages in their collegiate tennis careers.

Wolf is a freshman just finishing up her first year on the team. Sadaka, on the other hand, is a senior trying to make the most of her last month before graduation.

When put together, they form an undefeated doubles tandem that continued its dominance this weekend. The pair compiled an overall doubles and singles record of 5-1 this weekend, but their team fared far worse.

The Quakers fell to Dartmouth, 5-2, Friday in Hanover, N.H., and lost a tough 4-3 match to Harvard Saturday in Boston.

"Our game styles mesh well together," Wolf said. "I have a really big serve and I'm aggressive while [Sadaka] is more consistent, so opponents are facing a mixed attack."

Their only blemish was Wolf's singles loss to Dartmouth's Carley Markovitz.

Against the Big Green (7-8, 2-2 Ivy) Penn had a fantastic opportunity to win the doubles point. Wolf and Sadaka gutted out a 9-7 win and sophomore Alexa Ely and freshman Jaqueline Wong were up 6-3. But the No. 3 duo lost the next five sets and, coupled with the 8-2 loss by the No. 1 team of Ekaterina Kosminskaya and Maria Anisimova, Dartmouth won the point.

The disappointing doubles loss would set the tone for a difficult round of singles.

"Unfortunately, we let it get to us a little bit in singles," interim coach Sara Schiffman said. "We lost every first set in singles."

Sadaka and Ely were able to overcome early deficits, but the rest of the Quakers could not. Penn (1-14, 0-5) was upset with its play and was determined to have a better showing against Harvard (10-8, 3-1).

The Red and Blue met their goal the next day and battled the Crimson to a tough 4-3 loss. Things again started off with promise for Penn as they had a chance to pull out a doubles point after Sadaka and Wolf won, but Ely and Wong lost. Both teams lined the court to cheer on the No. 1 doubles teams.

But, Kosminskaya and sophomore Vidya Dabir lost, 8-3, and Penn again entered singles play already down.

Despite the deficit, the Quakers came out strong - Anisimova, Sadaka and Wolf all won their first sets.

"We knew we were in it and needed one more court," Schiffman said.

Sadaka, Anisimova and Wolf all built off of their strong first sets to defeat their opponents. Penn could not make a comeback in any other singles matches, though, leaving Boston with only three points and a heartbreaking loss.

"We just needed one more win," Sadaka said. "We are good enough to compete with all of these teams. We didn't win, but we are in there."

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