Tennis teams drop Ivy openers

Women overpowered by Tigers Going into Friday's meet against Princeton, Penn women's tennis senior co-captain Leanne Mos said, "Princeton will be very crucial, whoever wins will set the tone?.It would be good to come out ahead." Unfortunately for Penn, the Quakers did not come out ahead, but they sent a strong message that will be acknowledged by the rest of the Ancient Eight. Penn lost 6-1 to a senior-dominated Tiger squad, but the match was much closer than the score read. The Quakers lost eight of their nine matches, but there was no individual match anyone was out of. There were two matches decided in the final game of the final set. But each time, Penn came up short. Junior Cori Sibley and sophomore Beth Brady each lost the tiebreaker that would decide the winner of the two matches. Ironically, they both lost their first sets 1-6 and then bounced back to win the second set 6-4. Their comebacks were halted in the third set. The 6-1 defeat to Princeton would have been 4-3 if the two had been able to complete their comebacks. Then at least the score of the match would have appeared more respectable on paper. "They played hard," Penn coach Cissie Leary said. "It's tough going into Princeton and playing there. I mean two points, and we win two matches. It was just very frustrating for me. The 6-1 was not indicative of the match." In Ivy play the matches begin with the doubles teams. Penn took full advantage at the outset and got victories from their first and third doubles teams. Senior co-captains Suejin Kim and Leanne Mos paired up to win 8-6, while Sibley and Brady won 9-8. These victories made the rest of the match hard to swallow because the team felt the momentum was in its favor. "It was a tough loss to deal with," Kim said. "We went in there with every hope to win. They were all so close, we just started off so great, it was probably the best match [Leanne and I] ever played. We were just in a state of shock when we lost." · Penn travels to College Park, Md., today to take on ACC opponent Maryland. Although last year the Quakers defeated the Terrapins, they aren't going to take them lightly. "We're all playing very well," Kim said. "It's going to be a warm up, or an extra practice for the Ivy matches. We expect to win, but we don't want to be overconfident."