Cornell, Syracuse topple W. Tennis

Going into last weekend, the Penn women's tennis team was undefeated through nine spring matches. But the Quakers ran into tough competition on their trip to New York and lost to both Cornell and Syracuse, dropping their record to 9-2. Saturday the Quakers faced Cornell, only their second Ivy League opponent of the year. Penn was looking to continue its winning ways and remain undefeated in Ivy play after defeating Princeton last week. As many teams experience a letdown from time to time, so did the Quakers, who fell 5-2. Unlike most matches, in which top seed Barrie Bernstein opens up with a win, the No. 1 Cornell player got the best of her. Bernstein played tough but lost a close match 6-4, 7-5. The Quakers did rebound, as Preety Sorathia, the second seed, overcame a first-set loss to sweep the next two sets and the match 2-6, 7-5,6-1. Sorathia got stronger as the match went on and gave the Quakers a big lift. The rest of the singles remained tight. Third-seeded Lara Afanassiev, fourth-seeded Kathy Charneco and sixth-seeded Andi Grossman all lost close matches. Both Afanassiev and Grossman lost third set tiebreakers. Those heartbreaking losses made a Penn comeback virtually impossible. The doubles began well, with the team of Bernstein and Sorathia winning. But the second and third teams lost, thus ensuring a Cornell victory. "It was pretty close all the way to the end," said Bernstein. "It was just one of those weekends -- hopefully it will be the last." Sunday the team attempted to rebound against the Orangemen. The match opened with Bernstein facing one of the top players in the East, Jana Strnadova. Strnadova proved to be too much for the Quakers' top seed and dominated in a 6-1, 6-1 victory. This was followed by a string of losses from which the Quakers could not recover. Sorathia held tough for the first set but ended up losing the match 7-5, 6-3. Nicole Strnadova, the sister of the Syracuse top seed, was pitted against Penn's Afanassiev. Nicole had the same success, winning 6-1, 6-2. Following this was another tough loss, as fifth seed Sibley went down in straight sets. If there was any bright spot for the Quakers, it was the play of Grossman. She won the only match for the Quakers on the day, prevailing 7-6, 7-6. The doubles competition went much the same route as the rest of match, with all three Penn teams losing in straight sets. It was an especially tough loss. A win against a national power such as Syracuse would have gained Penn a great deal of respect. The Orangemen are currently ranked 41 in the nation and have a number of well known players. The next week for the Quakers is critical to the rest of the season, as both Dartmouth and Harvard come to town. "While Harvard is the best [Ivy League] team on paper, all the rest of the teams are relatively even. On any given day any team can beat the other," Penn coach Cissie Leary said. The next match is against Dartmouth Friday, and Penn will definitely need to rebound if it is to win the Ivy Crown.