W. Tennis ends fall season

The fall season ended on a high note for the Penn women's tennis team. This weekend's Eastern College Athletic Conference team championships at Princeton provided yet another setting for the team to put on a strong showing. The Quakers did relatively well in a field of eight that included familiar opponents such as Penn State, Rutgers and Princeton, as well as new faces from Virginia, Brown, James Madison and eventual winner Virginia Tech. This fall, the Quakers have always been able to come back from early struggles to finish with a win. ECACs was no exception. After an early defeat at the hands of a beatable opponent, Princeton, the Quakers came back with some exceptional play against Penn State to leave the tournament in great shape and high spirits, having won the loser's bracket. Although their final standings may not accurately reflect it, the Red and Blue played well in this final team competition of the fall. On Friday, in team head-to-head competitions, Penn lost to Princeton, 5-4, but bounced back to defeat James Madison, 5-1. The Princeton loss was a particularly tough one for the Quakers to swallow, sending them to the losers bracket. Penn players Julia Feldman and Shubha Srinivasan both lost tough, three-set matches, and the first doubles team of Elana Gold and Feldman lost 9-8 in a tiebreaker. "Princeton was actually a lot closer than 5-4? it could've gone either way," said Penn coach Michael Dowd. "It was a very, very tough college match? it came down to the last game of the day." Solid wins in the last two rounds brought the Quakers to fifth place out of the eight teams participating at Princeton. The team bounced back against James Madison later on Friday afternoon, picking up a win over the clearly overmatched team. Six of the seven Penn singles players won, including three, Anastasia Pozdniakova (6-4, 6-3), Lara Afanassiev (6-2, 7-5) and Rina Borromeo (6-2, 6-2), in straight sets. Penn finished its season in style on Sunday. The Quakers avenged a loss last year by picking up a huge 7-2 win over Penn State sophomore Gold teamed with junior Feldman to win 8-6 over the previously undefeated Nittany Lions first doubles team. Penn State sophomores Alison Barnett and Pilar Montgomery, who had defeated two other Quakers teams in winning the last two tournaments of this fall season, lost to the new Penn first doubles team in a match Dowd called "a big win." Gold, who finished without a loss in singles play in addition to this large win, was a key in the Quakers' ability to bounce back and finish well on Saturday. Gold has been one of several bright spots this fall, continually turning in solid play and winning the crucial matches. More great play was turned in this weekend by freshman Borromeo. For the second tournament in a row, this improving new player did well, going undefeated in both in singles play and in doubles action with senior co-captain Afanassiev. "We complimented each other well," Borromeo said. "The two of us really clicked from the first time we practiced together? " Also this weekend, improvement was seen in the play of the Quakers' doubles teams. Despite going only 1-2 in the loss to Princeton, doubles ended the weekend with a 4-2 overall record and several convincing wins. In addition, junior Corin Esterowitz finished with a 2-1 singles record. No. 1 singles player Pozdniakova scored three straight-set victories and continues to show herself to be among the class of the Ivy League.

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