W. Tennis goes after first Ivy 'W'

Going into last weekend's match against Cornell, the Penn women's tennis team was trying to reach the .500 mark in Ivy League competition after dropping its first conference match against Princeton. The Quakers failed. Penn (10-2, 0-2 Ivy League) travels to Harvard and Dartmouth this weekend to not only try to get to .500, but to just get its first Ivy victory. Before the Ivy season even started, Penn coach Cissie Leary pointed at Harvard (3-4, 0-0) as being one of the premier teams in the league. The Crimson is led by Jill Brenner and Gina Majmudar, who boast a 24-10 combined record. After its top two players, however, Harvard struggles. Its bottom four singles players are a combined 16-14. Conversely, this is where Penn's strength lies. But if the Quakers hope to win, they will need junior Barrie Bernstein to bounce back from a disappointing performance last weekend. Up until that point, Bernstein had rolled through her first singles and doubles opponents. But last weekend, she came up short in all four matches. She was able to take a set from Erica O'Neill, who is the top-seeded singles player in the East Region, and she forced Cornell's Olga Itskhoki into a tie-breaker before losing. But she was just flat throughout the weekend. "In both matches, they didn't beat me, I lost it," Bernstein said. "I have to work on being aggressive and staying tough. If they're up, I have to take control from there." Another Quaker who has been struggling lately is second singles Leanne Mos. The senior co-captain is in a slump after dropping her last four singles matches, and her last three doubles matches with fellow senior and co-captain Suejin Kim. Since this is her last season at Penn, Mos wants nothing more than to win. But despite her losing streak, she feels she is playing up to par. "As of now, I'm right into my game," Mos said. "In doubles we're fine, but in singles, I'm just a little off. What I really need is to get a good win to get my confidence up." The biggest surprise halfway through the season has been the superb play of junior Cori Sibley and sophomore Beth Brady. Brady has not lost any match since the Quakers returned home from their spring trip to California. In the same time frame, Sibley has only dropped one match. There are numerous incentives for Penn to win this weekend. By defeating Harvard and Dartmouth (3-4, 0-0), the Quakers could end a couple losing streaks, as well as notch their first Ivy victories. Also, the Quakers could put their opponents in a similar hole that they were in, because this weekend represents the first matches of the season for the Crimson and Big Green. The Quakers need to come out on top this weekend for the simple reason that they haven't won an Ivy contest yet this season. If they don't steamroll their competition, they'll be forced to shovel their way out of the cellar.