W. Tennis feeds off close loss to Temple

Thursday's 5-4 loss to Temple was just the motivating factor the women's tennis team needed. When they took the court Friday, the Quakers destroyed Army, giving up only one game in their 8-1 victory. Hosting the Owls (1-0) at Lott Courts, Penn was one game away from pulling out a win. The score was 4-4 when freshmen Lara Afanassiev and Kathy Charneco began their No. 2 doubles match. However, in a game filled with questionable line calls and a no-show referee, Temple managed to win the deciding match, 6-3, 5-7, 6-3. "I think that it was unfair," Charneco said. "The bad calls make a difference when it's close, but we have to learn to deal with that." Penn lost to Temple last year by the same 5-4 score. This year, they were hoping to turn things around. The circumstances surrounding the final match made the loss even harder to accept. "It was disappointing in the sense that we all felt we should have won, but some days are like that," junior Preety Sorathia said. "You want to go into every match and come out a winner. It would have been nice to do that, but maybe next year." The Quakers (3-1) may have to wait until next year to try and defeat the Owls, but they didn't have to wait long at all to crush Army (4-4-1). Although Penn was recovering from a tiring match, it dominated the Black Knights. "It was hard to go back the next day and play another match," Afanassiev said. "I was exhausted and so mentally out of it. We made it harder than we should have because we were still upset about the day before." However, Afanassiev and Charneco were determined to come out with a victory. In one eight-game set, the Quakers saw themselves down 7-6 before winning the next three games to take the match 9-7. "We were a little slow at first," Charneco said. "At the end we got it together. We came back and managed to pull it out." The rest of the Quakers also proved they were more than ready for a win. Sorathia swept through her No. 2 singles match, 6-0, 6-0. She then teamed with Barrie Bernstein for an 8-2 victory in No. 1 doubles. "Since we lost the day before, it was really a motivator," Sorathia said. "I played very smart and steady." The loss to Temple was all the inspiration Penn needed. The Quakers were not about to leave another match feeling cheated. Instead, they made sure Army would have no question as to whom the winner was.