The overall strength of the Ancient Eight has left the Penn women’s tennis team at a comparative disadvantage.
This season, five of the eight Ivy League women’s tennis teams — Princeton, Yale, Dartmouth, Harvard and Brown — are ranked among the top 65 teams in the country.
After losing 6-1 to Dartmouth (16-3, 3-1 Ivy) on Friday and 7-0 against Harvard (11-7, 3-1) on Saturday, the Quakers have now lost to each of those five nationally-ranked Ancient Eight teams.
The losses to Dartmouth and Harvard are just part of what has been a rough patch for the Red and Blue (4-13, 0-5 Ivy). Their last victory was exactly one month ago, during a spring break trip to California.
Since then, the Quakers have lost seven-straight with only two individual singles wins — both by Jacqueline Wong at No. 4 singles.
One of the reasons for the Quakers’ difficult season has been a lack of experience. Wong is the team’s only senior starter, and freshmen and sophomores dominate the lineup.
However, there is still reason to remain optimistic. Last year, the Red and Blue lost their first five Ivy League matches only to bounce back and win their last two.
The Quakers are in position to do the same this season. They play the same two teams that they beat at the end of last year, Columbia on April 16th and Cornell on April 18th.
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