W. Tennis is undefeated

The Penn women's tennis team upset No. 7 Richmond 5-4 before beating its three other opponents this weekend. It's not often a varsity coach does cartwheels after pulling out a victory in a close match. But that's just what Penn women's tennis coach Mike Dowd did on Saturday -- erupting with sheer excitement following Penn's stunning upset of nationally ranked Richmond at the Penn Conference Classic. Downing all four of its opponents at Levy Pavilion, the Red and Blue dominated most of the matchups -- finishing with comfortable leads against Colgate, Temple and Seton Hall. It was the match against Richmond, though, the No. 7 team in the region, which proved sweetest for the Quakers. Having suffered bad losses in its last two meetings with the Spiders, Penn was soundly focused on breaking the streak this year. "We were definitely geared toward the Richmond goal the last few weeks," senior tri-captain Julia Feldman said. "We've been working really hard in practice, we believed we could do it, and our effort finally paid off." The dual match consisted of six singles and three doubles matches, with Feldman, junior Anastasia Pozdniakova and freshman Louani Bascara scoring victories for the Quakers against tough Richmond opponents. The Spiders also dealt three losses to the Quakers, leaving the match tied at three going into doubles. In the first doubles match, the Penn team of Pozdniakova and senior Karen Ridley dropped a close one by the score of 8-5, giving Richmond a 4-3 lead in the match. Senior Brooke Herman and junior Elana Gold then faced a must-win match for the Quakers. "We were down 6-3, and Elana and I decided we would do whatever it took to win," said tri-captain Herman. "We totally raised the level of play, fought hard for every point and won five straight games to take the match." Their stellar performance not only set up the deciding third doubles match between the No. 1 teams on each side, but also worked to inspire the Quakers at the end of this hard-fought match. The Penn team of Feldman and Lenka Beranova began the final matchup slowly, falling behind three-love early on. With the help of their own personal cheerleading team -- the other members of the women's tennis team themselves -- the Quakers came back strong and dealt a stunning 8-5 upset to the Richmond squad. Finishing the dual match 5-4, Penn defeated Richmond for the first time in recent memory -- a goal the team had concentrated upon heavily leading up to the start of the season. "[Dowd] had been talking about beating them for at least the last month," Herman said. "It was really important to him and to the team, and it was great to see him so happy. He'll be on a high for at least a couple of weeks." Dowd's acrobatic exploits after the victory were not the only expression of the team's feelings of excitement and relief after stopping Richmond. "I was in shock that it actually happened," said Feldman, whose doubles victory capped a day of strong play and was the deciding match. "We've never beaten them as long as I've been here? so it's great for [us] to have started the season like this." The Quakers, still facing three more matches in the round robin, maintained their composure and resisted complacency. They continued their superior level of play in dominating the teams they faced, ending their first weekend of competition with a perfect 4-0 record. Up next for Penn is next weekend's Princeton Invitational, a 32-player draw of the best players in the region. The Quakers will send three of their own to the tournament -- Herman, Feldman and Pozdniakova. The team is also confident about its February 23 meeting with Army and is busy preparing for its trip out west to play several strong California schools. After spring break, Penn will begin its conference matchups against the rest of the powerful Ancient Eight. "Our whole Ivy season is going to be tough," Feldman said. "This was a great start to the season," Dowd said. "But we can't get caught up in it too much. We've still got a long way to go."