W. Tennis falls to Penn State

For six-and-a-half grueling hours on Sunday afternoon, the Penn women's tennis team ( battled a powerful Penn State squad (4-1) to a near deadlock at Penn's Levy Pavilion. When the smoke cleared, however, it was the Nittany Lions' heavy artillery that prevailed as the Quakers fell 6-3 to their cross-state rivals. "It was a war," Penn coach Cissie Leary said. "Our girls were down early a lot, but they hung tough and showed a lot of heart. We showed them we can play." The Quakers spent most of the day digging themselves out of holes, as in eight of nine matches Penn failed to win more than two games in the first set. The Quakers, however, refused to roll over and die, coming back to win six of nine second sets and forcing tiebreakers in two of the losses. The first-set losses weren't a concern for Leary. "I told the girls it was going to be a long day coming in," Leary said. "Penn State has essentially the same team it did last year so I knew they'd be tough. We wanted to wear their girls down, like we did in doubles." Penn won two of the three doubles matches to begin the contest, a fact which surprised Penn State coach Susan Whiteside. "I give Penn a lot of credit," Whiteside said. "They played tough today. We think we're pretty good in doubles so I wasn't expecting to be down so quickly." Unfortunately for the Quakers, Penn State was even better in singles, taking five of six matches on the day. "We have two players [Olga Novikova and Tricia Lehman] who haven't lost a singles match all year," Whiteside said. "When we knew we needed to win four of the six singles matches, we had extra incentive because we lost to Penn last year at home." Junior Barrie Bernstein turned in the Quakers' best individual performance, defeating Penn State's Tammy Okins-Nguyen 0-6, 6-1, 6-2 in No. 1 singles and joining sophomore Preety Sorathia to beat Okins-Nguyen and Olga Novikova 7-5, 7-5 in No. 1 doubles for Penn's only straight-set victory. After dropping the first set of her singles match at love, Bernstein suddenly found the lines and the corners and began to wear out Okins-Nguyen by moving her around the court before closing to the net and putting each point away. "After the first set, I had to get myself back together," Bernstein said. "I lost to Tammy last year and I told myself there was no way I was going to lose to her again." Penn's other victory came in No. 3 doubles, as sophomore Beth Brady and junior Cori Sibley staged a monumental comeback to defeat the Nittany Lions' Tricia Lehman and Kim Nelson 0-6, 7-5, 6-4. Trailing 5-3 in the second set, Brady and Sibley were on the brink of elimination before they took four consecutive games to steal the second set and ultimately the match. "It took us a while to get into the match," Brady said. "It was frustrating. We started to become more aggressive in the second set and that turned it around." The team score was 4-3 in favor of Penn State with the No. 5 and 6 singles matches still in progress, creating some anxious moments for women on both sides. The Nittany Lions clinched the victory only when Andi Chiumento squeaked by Brady at No. 6 singles in a second set tiebreaker 6-1, 7-6 (11-9). The two teams may meet again on October 30 at the ITA Rolex Northeast Regional Championships hosted by Penn. The Nittany Lions dodged a bullet Sunday afternoon at Levy Pavilion. In three weeks, against a battle-tested Quaker squad, Penn State may not be so lucky.

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