W. Tennis shuts out Army, 9-0

The Penn women's tennis team crushed the Cadets despite not using three of its top players in singles competition. The Penn women's tennis team massacred an overmatched Army team 9-0 yesterday at Levy Pavilion to remain undefeated on the season. Leading the way in the Quakers' charge was junior Elana Gold. The No. 4 singles player served Army's Lillian Lien a double bagel, 6-0, 6-0. "Elana came out with a vengeance and dominated her opponent," Penn coach Michael Dowd said. "She beat [Gold] in less than 40 minutes. It was like the Alamo." Like the defenders of the doomed fort, the Cadets (7-4) were heavy underdogs in yesterday's match. Penn (5-0) shuffled its lineup around in anticipation of an easy victory. "I wanted to make sure we gave most of our players experience," Dowd said. "Our top players may have been a little tired from the match this weekend so we tried to give them a rest. And we wanted to work on our depth." Penn's depth came through for Dowd, as the Quakers won without their top three players in singles competition. Anastasia Pozdniakova, Brooke Herman and Julia Feldman all were part of winning doubles teams but Dowd had other players carry the singles load. Senior Karen Ridley was one of those players who needed to elevate her game yesterday. She came through with a straight-set victory over Army's Annie Weber at No. 1 singles, 6-3, 6-1. "You feel a little more pressure playing in the No. 1 singles spot," Ridley said. "In the beginning I was kind of tight. It was hard to keep focus in this match after the big matches two weeks ago." Freshman Louani Bascara won at No. 2 singles for Penn, defeating Cadet junior Jen Blatty, 6-4, 6-1. Sophomore Shubha Srinivasan scored an impressive 6-2, 6-0 victory at No. 5 singles. Quakers sophomore Lenka Beranova at No. 3 and freshman Jolene Sloat at No. 6 also won singles matches. Army played Penn closer in the three doubles matches, but the Quakers still earned a sweep. Leading the way for Penn was the team of Beranova and Feldman. The two combined to outlast Army's top doubles team of Melissa Sentelle and Betsy Evans, 9-7. Freshman Jaya Kirtane teamed with Gold to score a victory at the No. 3 spot. The Quakers regained some of the momentum they had lost last weekend in the Princeton Invitational. After upsetting Richmond on February 13, Penn's top players did not have the success they had hoped for at Princeton. Pozdniakova, who lost in the final there last year, was seeded second but fell in the quarterfinals. The doubles team of Pozdniakova and Herman got a tough draw, falling to the No. 2 seeded doubles team in the first round and the No. 1 seed in the finals of the consolation bracket. But the throttling of Army has put the Quakers back on track. "The season goes through hills and valleys," Dowd said. "But right now we need to start preparing for our matches over spring break." Penn will face UC Santa Barbara, UC Irvine and Loyola Marymount in a California road trip over spring break that starts March 6.