W. Tennis will host Syracuse Saturday

In her 18 seasons as head coach of the women's tennisteam, Cissie Leary has had consistent success. Her career win-loss record is a sparkling 210-111. And hopes run high this year coming off an 18-6 campaign last season and a second place finish in the Ivies. But to continue this success, the team will have to rely on four freshman -- who compile half of its starters. Fortunately, the Quakers return two key performers -- co-captains Preety Sorathia and Beth Brady. Sorathia and Brady are Penn's lone seniors. So far, the women's tennis team has a mediocre 3-3 record, but Leary feel that the record does not indicate how well Penn has played. The team returns home this weekend to take on a strong Syracuse squad on Saturday at 1:00 P.M. at Levy Tennis Pavilion. Sorathia will lead the team at first singles, while Brady will spend some time playing singles at the sixth spot. In addition, the two seniors join forces to play second doubles and will provide leadership to the four starting freshmen. Also returning from last year's team are sophomores Lara Afanassiev and Andrea Grossman. Afanassiev holds the second singles position and will play at first doubles along with freshman Julia Feldman. Grossman will also see some action in singles' play. Other freshman hoping to make strong contributions are Karen Ridley, Yukie Tokuda, and Corin Esterowitz. Penn got off to the right foot in the spring season which starts in February with easy victories over Villanova and Rutgers by scores of 9-0 and 7-2, respectively. Later that month, Afanassiev and Feldman competed in doubles at The Princeton Invitational with great success -- making it all the way to the semi-finals, knocking off the No. 1 doubles' team of Princeton and Brown. Last week, the Quakers went south to New Orleans in which they battled four highly-ranked opponents. Although the Quakers only were victorious in one of their four matches, Leary was pleased their gutsy play. "I'm proud of the way they played," Leary said. "I think New Orleans was surprised. They were lucky to get away with a win." Said Afanassiev: "We had a lot of bad breaks, but now we are motivated for the rest of the season." This weekend's match against Syracuse will be a good test for the team. Syracuse has a disappointing 1-4 record because of their tough early schedule -- which includes Kansas and Boston College. The top of their lineup features two of the best players in the region in Jana and Nicole Strnadova, sisters from Czechoslovakia. In fact, earlier this year, the Strnadova sisters teamed up to defeat Afanassiev and Feldman at The Princeton Invitational. "It's going to be tough," Leary said. "But I think we are a deeper team then they are."