W. Tennis loses 4-3 nailbiter to Crimson

Coming off its toughest weekend of the year, the women's tennis team rebounded from two tough losses to split a pair of matches against Dartmouth and Harvard. With last weekend's Syracuse and Cornell losses fresh in their minds, the Quakers came out with a vengeance against a helpless Dartmouth squad. Dartmouth could only manage to win three sets in nine matches. The Quakers (10-3, 2-2 Ivy League) won all six singles matches and took two of the three doubles matches in cruising to a 7-0 victory. The singles matches began in typical fashion, with Barrie Bernstein winning in straight sets. The steady shotmaking that has won matches for Bernstein all year helped her to a 7-5, 6-3 victory. The match continued with Preety Sorathia, the second seed, also winning in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4. The toughest match of the day followed as the third-seeded Lara Afanassiev used three sets to win 4-6, 7-6, 6-4. The domination continued as Kathy Charneco, the Quakers' fourth seed, swept her opponent, 6-3, 7-5. Cori Sibley, the fifth seed, also had a tough match, as she had to rebound from losing the second set to pull out the 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 victory. Andrea Grossman finished the sweep of the singles matches with a straight sets victory. The doubles competition began with a fantastic match. The team of Bernstein and Sorathia was down 7-4 at one point. They fought back to 7-6, only to go down 0-40 in the crucial 14th game. Facing triple match point the Quakers No. 1 duo rallied to pull out the game and the comeback for an incredible 9-7 victory. The only loss of the day came next, as the second doubles team of Afanassiev and Brady lost 8-6. The third and final doubles match ended in a Quakers victory, with Sibley and Grossman winning 9-7. "We lost there last year, and this year all the matches were close," Penn coach Cissie Leary said. "Singles was tough, but with the doubles victory the momentum really shifted." The victory celebration was short, however. Harvard was coming to town the next day. This was the match the Quakers were looking forward to all year. Harvard, currently No. 35 in the nation, is the team to beat in the Ivy League. The Red and Blue would need to be at its best to pull it out. They came up only one match short of their biggest upset of the year. The doubles matches began with the team of Bernstein and Sorathia pulling out another tough win, 9-7. With the win the Quakers only had to split the next two matches in order to get the doubles point. But Harvard proved to be too strong, dominating the Quakers in the next two matches, 8-3 and 8-2. As the singles began, the Quakers had their work cut out for them. The top seed Bernstein continued her strong play, as she won 6-4, 5-7, 6-1. Sorathia, who is playing stronger as the year progresses, won easily in straight sets, 6-2, 6-4. This was quite an accomplishment for the Quakers -- both of Harvard's top seeds were ranked among the top 15 junior players in the nation. These matches seemed to be a wake-up call for Harvard, which won three out of the next four matches. The third and fourth seeds Afanassiev and Charneco both had tough matches, each losing in straight sets. Penn had to win both of the last two singles matches in order to win the overall match. Sibley went three sets for the second day in a row to win 4-6, 6-1 ,6-4. In the deciding match, Grossman lost in straight sets. Although the Quakers split the singles matches, they had already lost the doubles point, and that proved to be the deciding factor. Nevertheless, it was a moral victory for the Quakers who were not supposed to come that close. "The whole weekend showed a lot of character," Leary said. "We made a statement." The Quakers will need the same type of effort this weekend when they travel to play both Yale and Brown.