Down but not necessarily out

Women’s tennis coach Sanela Kunovac is not concerned that the result of yesterday’s match will officially be recorded as a loss.

While her Quakers lost 4-3 to Temple, the first-year coach is confident that her team can avoid the ten-game skid that defined the team’s season last year.

Penn was narrowly edged by the Owls yesterday at Levy Pavilion, where three of the team’s losses came from its freshmen.

Freshmen Jules Rodin, Charlotte Ezratty and Emma Whifield were all defeated by seasoned upperclassmen during singles play.

Kunovac sees the loss as a valuable learning experience for her younger players.

“[Temple’s upperclassmen] were able to capitalize on major moments, and I think having gone through that our team is better off,” Kunovac said.

The Quakers started the day on the wrong foot after dropping two of their three doubles matches. Losing the costly doubles point came back to haunt them later on.

In the No. 1 doubles spot, the duo of Rodin and sophomore Emily Wolf were defeated 8-1 by Anastasiia Rukavyshnykova and Lucie Pazderova while the No. 2 doubles team of Ezratty and junior Alexa Ely succumbed to a similar fate.

Still, the Quakers started to heat up with a victory in their final doubles match. Whitfield and sophomore Daniela DePaoli took down Temple’s Katharina Mittag and Theresa Stangl.

Junior No. 1 Alexa Ely kept the ball rolling in singles play, redeeming herself from last season’s loss in the No. 3 spot to Pazderova.

Ely enacted some revenge, defeating Rukavyshnykova in two sets.

Meanwhile, sophomore Emily Wolf followed suit, getting the best of Pazderova, 6-2, 7-6.

Though the Quakers stumbled with Rodin’s loss at No. 3, DePaoli earned her second win of the season, defeating Temple’s Mellana Cramer at No. 4

However, it was Temple’s depth that ultimately prevailed. The Owls carried the two matches at the bottom of the ladder.

“The deciding matches were the singles matches later on,” Kunovac said. “It was the singles matches that tipped the scale.”

But despite the loss, Kunovac was not fazed.

“I think they performed well [under pressure],” she said. “You can definitely see an experience difference with certain positions.”

“They learned how to play big points and hopefully they’ll keep using that in their future matches,” she added.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.