W. Tennis serves up another victory

With an undefeated record so far this spring, the Penn women's tennis team faced its biggest challenge of the year Saturday and did not disappoint. By beating Princeton, 4-3, the Quakers kept their undefeated season alive. Unlike recent contests in basketball and football, Princeton actually put up somewhat of a struggle, and the match was not decided until the very end. The day began as the three Penn doubles teams swept through their matches. Composed of the six starting singles players, the doubles teams won all three matches to give the Quakers an early 1-0 lead. The team of Barrie Bernstein and Preety Sorathia, the number one and two singles seeds, won 8-4. That was followed by the team of Lara Afanassiev and Beth Brady winning 8-5. Cori Sibley and Andrea Grossman then emerged victorious by a 9-7 score. "It set the tone for the rest of the match," Penn coach Cissie Leary said. With the victory Penn had only to split the six singles matches in order to win the overall team match. The singles began with sixth-seeded Grossman winning 6-4, 6-1. This was followed by three consecutive losses. Sibley and Afanassiev each lost 6-3, 6-4 while Brady lost 6-4, 6-4. Penn's top two seeds had to win in order to save the victory. The second seed Sorathia was winning 3-2 in the first set when her opponent went down with an injury and was forced to retire. Bernstein, the top seed, used an array of lob shots and overheads to outlast her Princeton counterpart, 7-5, 6-4. This victory clinched the 4-3 overall match win. It was a big win. "Princeton was playing extremely well, and it gives us a good start in Ivy League play," Leary said. Today the team will host the visiting Maryland Terrapins at 2 p.m. A Quakers win would move them to 8-0 this spring and give them a win over a well-known out-of-conference foe. The Terrapins are having a rough time in conference matches. They were winless in ACC competition going in to last weekend and didn't win a single match against either N.C. State or Virginia. Yet the Terrapins do have six scholarship players, so they definitely have some talent. Consequently the Quakers will need the same type of effort they showed against Princeton if they are to maintain their perfect record.