Looking across the court at the precipice of a championship, an all-too-familiar foe stands ahead.
Penn women’s tennis senior Sabine Rutlauka had already clinched her qualifying spot in the 2024-25 NCAA Division I women’s tennis singles tournament when she walked onto the court for the Intercollegiate Tennis Association regional tournament final.
Across the net from her stood a familiar opponent — teammate sophomore Esha Velaga, who had also qualified for the NCAA singles tournament and made history as the first Penn athlete to earn a doubles spot. Facing off in front of an empty crowd for the regional title, one thing was clear: Iron sharpens iron.
Tennis is well known for being a sport of passion. Matches are full of intensity, as opponents trade backhands and forehands with crescendoing levels of strength. Yet, as the two prepared for the first serve, Velaga could only describe the impending final as a “calm match.” Two teammates, already having achieved their goals of qualifying for the NCAA tournament, found no pleasure in having to take on each other.
“Our coaches and all of our teammates were not there. Both of us qualified for nationals, but we had to play [each other],” Rutlauka said. “We didn’t have a choice. It was the most unpleasant thing.”
To get to the final, Rutlauka had already dispatched another teammate in the semifinals — her doubles partner, senior Eileen Wang — taking both sets 6-4 and 6-3. Velaga, on the other hand, had only faced off against opponents from other schools during her run to the final.
Despite being described as a “calm match,” it was anything but. As the battle raged on, each player’s playing style largely reflected their different journeys within the sport.
Tennis had always been a constant in Rutlauka’s life, even when her parents had made her try a plethora of sports. The decision to eventually focus on tennis was proven to be fruitful as Rutlauka became Latvia’s under-18 singles and doubles national champion.
For Rutlauka, choosing Penn meant moving over 4,000 miles from Marupe, Latvia. Tennis became her anchor, helping her build a home away from home. She posted a 19-5 record as a rookie, earning second team, All-Ivy singles honors, then opened her second year with 11 straight singles wins, all but one in straight sets.
But then disaster struck.
During a match against Princeton, Rutlauka tore her ACL. For someone who had been playing tennis her entire life, not being able to play the rest of that spring and the subsequent fall was an uncomfortable experience for Rutlauka. An ACL tear is a nightmare for tennis players, where explosive movement is crucial.
“It was really rough timing [for] the injury. Coming back was definitely scary,” Rutlauka said. “I’m still concerned on the court for my knee, but I’ve been working through it, and everything’s been working out so far.”
After taking the year off to recover, Rutlauka returned in the spring on March 22, 2024 against Temple. Not missing a beat, she defeated her first opponent Sena Takebe, dropping just three games across two sets. Playing primarily at No. 2 with some No. 1 appearances, she went undefeated in Ivy League singles, earning first team All-Ivy honors.
She also excelled in doubles play. A new challenge, Rutlauka learned the ropes quickly with Wang as her doubles partner. The two went 8-4 in doubles play, including a 5-2 record playing in Penn’s first spot. These performances earned Rutlauka another spot on first team All-Ivy, this time for doubles.
“It has been a learning curve,” Rutlauka said. “At first I hated it, but I knew I had to go through with it to win.”
Even if her road hasn’t been the easiest, Rutlauka has always found a way to win. With the score of the first set between her and Velaga all tied up with six games apiece, it all came down to a tiebreaker. Rutlauka found herself edging out Velaga 7-5 — the title winner from a year ago — to take the first set.
But while Rutlauka was beginning her recovery, Velaga was finishing up her high school career. Velaga’s journey to Penn was much shorter, hailing from Colmar, Pa., just an hour’s drive from Philadelphia.
For Velaga, competition was ingrained in her upbringing. She grew up admiring her older sister, who also played tennis, and went on to join the Princeton team.
“Seeing her success … and being like … I want to do better than that, [made me] myself in that way, because just seeing other people succeed makes me want to push myself to do better than I already am,” Velaga said.
Velaga dominated at the high school level. When she stopped foot onto campus, she was coming in as the No. 4 women’s singles tennis player under the age of 18 in the nation. A huge part of her success is her aggressive approach on the court.
“My personal game style is an aggressive baseliner, so I like to hit the ball pretty hard [and] move players around using my grab strokes,” Velaga said. “I try to attack with my serve as well, because I have a pretty big serve. I really like to attack with my forehand.”
With a slate of accolades already under Velaga’s name including Ivy League Rookie of the Year, Ivy League Player of the Year, 2024 ITA Northeast Super Regionals singles title winner, and 2023 NCAA Division I women’s tennis nationals singles qualifier, it’s hard to believe that she is just a sophomore.
Despite all the success that Velaga has already achieved, she’s hungry for more. To her, winning Ivy League Rookie of the Year and Ivy League Player of the Year are just expectations.
“I put pressure on myself to do well. I expected certain results, like [making] NCAAs … [and] more goals that I wanted to achieve,” Velaga said. “I just wanted to go in and win as many matches as I could … but I was more focused on my development as a player.”
Even with her competitive nature, Velaga still knows when it’s the right time to keep her competitiveness in check — for example, in the regional final against Rutlauka.
“It was a competitive match — both of us were obviously trying to put a lot of effort in, but it was very relaxed and calm,” Velaga said. “We were just telling each other ‘nice shot’ all the time, or laughing at the mistakes that we made ourselves.”
Like the first set, the second also came down to a tiebreaker. Rutlauka won the tiebreaker handily 7-1 to take the ITA regionals crown. But by that point, it didn’t really matter who won. The two have made Penn women’s tennis a powerhouse program within the Ancient Eight.
“It was really cool to have two Penn players in the final,” Velaga said. “And I think both of us kind of recognize that.”
With both qualifying for the NCAA Division I national women’s singles tournament — and with Velaga qualifying for a second-straight year — Penn became the only Ivy League institute to be represented at the NCAA Division I national tournament for each of the last two years.
At the tournament, Velaga struggled. Coming up against eighth-seeded Sofia Johnson of Old Dominion, Velaga was unable to prevail, bowing out after losing two sets 6-4 and 6-2. Rutlauka found better success, defeating her first opponent, UC Santa Barbara’s Amelia Honer, to move on to the round of 32. There, she ultimately fell to Texas A&M’s Nicole Khirin, dropping both sets 6-4 and 6-1.
As the two turned their attention to the spring season, they will continue to hone their strengths in preparation for matchups within the Ivy League. But through countless matches and serves, losses and victories, both Rutlauka and Velaga embraced a common motto on and off the court: Iron sharpens iron.
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