W. Tennis begins spring season at home

After a strong tune-up performance last weekend at Virginia Tech, the Penn women's tennis team kicks off its spring campaign tomorrow at 11 a.m. when it hosts the Penn Conference Classic. The Quakers -- who played well during the fall's more individual-based competition -- will be working to improve even more before starting their Ivy League schedule March 31 against Columbia. "We have some time before the Ivy season," Penn captain Brooke Herman said. "And the key goal is to get the Ivy title." The next 1 1/2 months will bring some travel to the Quakers (14-7, 5-2 Ivy in 1998). Penn's schedule includes a five-match spring break trip to California. The focus right now, however, is on this weekend. The Valentine's Day-weekend visitors to Penn's indoor facility will be Colgate, Seton Hall, Temple and Richmond. Although they are confident in their abilities, the Quakers would be thrilled if their fans could actually find Levy Pavilion. "It's sort of behind the Palestra, way out there," Herman said. "You have to go over a bridge. I really hope that people come out this weekend, though, because we've lost some tough ones to Richmond over time and we can use the support." The Quakers will probably have a somewhat easier time with Richmond, their first opponent of the weekend, than in the past. The Spiders' top two players from last season -- Lesia Bilak and Bridget Merrick, -- were lost to graduation. "Probably at this point we're not as strong [as at the same time last season] because we had those two players leave the team," Richmond coach Mark Wesselink said. "We've been trying to regroup, but I don't think that we're anywhere close to match tough yet." Penn lost to Richmond last year at Virginia Commonwealth by an 8-1 score as Bilak and Merrick cruised to straight-set victories over Penn's top two players, Anastasia Pozdniakova and Karen Ridley. Despite losing Bilak and Merrick, "[Richmond is] still the team to beat," Penn coach Michael Dowd said. "I still think that they're very deep and very tough." Penn should also have a tough time with their final opponent of the weekend, Seton Hall. The Quakers, however, should have the weapons to handle the Pirates. "Penn always has great depth," Wesselink said. "Pozdniakova is a tough out at No. 1 and then the rest of that lineup, there are no easy matches. I expect that they'll be really solid all the way through No. 6 -- and those matches count just as much as No. 1, so it'll be tight." The key goal at this point for the Quakers is to maintain intensity during their non-conference schedule. "We can't just go through the motions," Dowd said. "It's all about giving 100 percent for two hours of practice every day, and this team has done that, especially this week." With only one more full team event -- February 23 at Army -- before the spring break trip, this weekend's event is an important one for the Quakers. And no matter how much Wesselink insists that his team is struggling, Dowd knows that the Spiders will bring a tough test to West Philadelphia. "He's a humble guy," Dowd said. "But believe me, they've got some players."