W. Tennis falters at Cissie Leary Invite.

The Penn women's tennis team had a tough time this weekend at the first annual Cissie Leary Women's Tennis Memorial Invitational. The Quakers did not enjoy the individual successes in this three-day tournament they had during their two previous fall competitions. Unfortunately for the Red and Blue, all but one singles player and every doubles team were eliminated by the end of the second round in this five-round tournament. "I think the team was a little disappointed in their play in the second round," said Penn coach Michael Dowd, who also served as tournament's director. Penn players finished with only one win out of a total of nine second-round matches. Five of the six singles players were eliminated from their draws, as were all three doubles teams. This left Penn underrepresented on its home court for the later rounds. Only sophomore Anastasia Pozdniakova was able to move on to the singles quarterfinals Saturday afternoon with a 6-2, 6-1 second-round win. She too lost a tough match, though, to eventual semifinalist Leisa Bilak from Richmond in the third round. Dowd, however, stressed the high level of competition that was present at this first-ever tournament at Penn's Lott Courts. Seven strong Eastern schools -- Penn, Boston College, Penn State, Princeton, Richmond, Seton Hall and Yale -- brought teams to the Memorial Invitational. By Sunday afternoon, however, the focus of all attention was on the extent to which Richmond was drubbing all other schools involved. "I knew [Richmond] would be a tough team, but I had no idea they would dominate as they did," Dowd said. The final results clearly indicated Richmond's supremacy. No. 1 seed Elizabeth Cascarilla defeated teammate Bridget Merrick, 6-2, 2-6, 7-5, in the semifinals. Bilak won her semifinal match without a single double-fault. In the finals, Bilak won the main singles draw, defeating teammate Cascarilla. After an opening-round loss, a fourth Richmond player, Janelle Williams, was able to win the consolation draw, 6-2, 6-2, over Mercedes del Valle from B.C. Penn State's first doubles team, though, defeated Bilak and Merrick to deny Richmond the prize of the main doubles draw. B.C. guaranteed itself one victory by placing its two doubles teams in the consolation bracket doubles finals. The Penn team did enjoy some early success in the tournament. Dowd was impressed that four of Penn's six singles players won their first-round matches. In particular, he praised sophomore Elana Gold for her strong play. Gold had a comeback 4-6, 6-2, 6-0 win in her first singles match on Friday, then teamed with junior Karen Ridley to defeat the fourth-seeded B.C. doubles team 8-3 in a modified pro set later in the same day. "I was very happy with Elana's play? she really picked it up in this tournament," said Dowd of one of the few bright spots in the otherwise difficult Cissie Leary Invitational for Penn. In contrast to the singles play, the Penn doubles teams did not show the cohesiveness or strength that might have been expected of a team with two prior fall competitions under its belt. Only one of Penn's three doubles teams was able to advance to the second round of the main draw, and two of the teams were defeated twice in a row. The Quakers were facing stiff competition and none of their doubles combinations were the same as in last weekend's tournament, but the doubles teams could not seem to put it together to pull out the close 8-6 and 8-5 matches. Although pleased by small bits and pieces of play from his individual players and doubles teams, Dowd says the team has "shown nothing exceptional" so far this fall season. Dowd said that even after early successes, this tournament served to accurately highlight the weaknesses of the Quakers. The main source of disappointment in this invitational lay in the play of the new doubles team, but Dowd knows the Quakers must sharpen both their singles and doubles play skills in the coming weeks.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.