The Penn women's tennis team is off to a great start this year and hopes to continue with its winning efforts this weekend in the Eastern Collegiates at Princeton. The three-day tournament will feature four singles divisions and two doubles divisions. Each singles player or doubles pair is guaranteed two matches in the tournament on Friday; after the first match, however, it is a single elimination draw for the rest of the weekend. Starting today, the Red and Blue will attempt to duplicate last year's showing in the tournament. In 1996, Penn players or doubles pairs placed in the finals of each of the six draws, winning four. This team returns all nine players from an 11-5 squad, and the women's overall match play experience should come in very handy in this tournament. The Eastern Collegiates will feature a tough compilation of Division I singles and doubles teams, as well as a small compliment of Division II and III teams. Ivy League foes Cornell and Princeton are sure to be solid opponents at the tournament. West Virginia will bring yet another deep team this year and schools such as Connecticut, Massachusetts and Fairfield will also seek to outplace the Quakers. In all, approximately 15 to 20 schools from the Northeast will attend with a full contingent of players. Last year's Ivy League Rookie of the Year, Penn sophomore Anastasia Pozdniakova, will play in the first singles division in the tournament. Senior co-captains Lara Afanassiev and Andrea Grossman will each return as singles players with good knowledge of the match site and level of competition; talented freshman Shubha Srinivasan will fill the final singles spot. Sophomore Elana Gold and freshman Regina Borromeo will play in the first doubles division, and sophomore Alison Lacika will combine with freshman Melissa Perold in the second doubles draw. Although neither pair has played together in a competitive match before, Penn coach Mike Dowd feels that the daily practice regimen of the last few weeks will allow both teams to work well together and be a force in the doubles draws. Dowd stresses that this tournament will be a tougher test than last weekend's Georgetown Invitational. In that meet, the Quakers, while competing only in singles, won 21 of 24 individual matches. This weekend, each player or team is guaranteed two matches, with a maximum of six matches should they reach the finals Sunday afternoon. Although not competing for overall team results, Dowd knows that the women will still be there to cheer each other on during their matches. Dowd has a lot of confidence in his team, and is pleased with its strong showing this year. This will be the second tournament in as many weeks, and Dowd feels the team is in good physical and mental condition for this early point in the fall season. The Red and Blue have had a busy fall season so far, but this is nothing new to the dedicated Quakers. Most of their players spent a good portion of their summer playing tennis and tuning up for team competition this fall. The team will, however, rest several of its upperclass players who participated in last weekend's tournament so they will be ready for the upcoming Ivy League match to be held on Penn's Lott Courts. Dowd wants to rotate his players so that each gets valuable match experience, and he feels that this weekend's Eastern Collegiates will be a good opportunity for the freshmen and sophomore Quakers to play against some solid competition.
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