W. Tennis' Ivy ride ends

Penn saw its undefeated Ivy season come to an end against Harvard. All good things must, and do, eventually come to an end. Just ask Wayne Gretzky, Michael Jordan or, after this past weekend, the Penn women's tennis team. The Quakers were fresh off a close 5-4 road victory over Dartmouth (9-6, 2-2 Ivy League), which raised their spring season record to an incredible 16-0 -- putting them only two final wins away from finishing the season undefeated and capturing their first-ever Ivy League title to ensure a berth in the NCAA Tournament. That is, until they ran into the perennial Ancient Eight powerhouse -- and 12-time conference champion -- Harvard on Saturday. The No. 75 Crimson (8-10, 4-0 Ivy) stopped the No. 49 Quakers (16-1, 5-1) dead in their tracks, 8-1, and prevented the Red and Blue from polishing off a perfect season after having reeled off five straight Ivy victories. The weekend -- which saw the Quakers play their first road Ivy contests of the year -- started off on a positive note. Eager to preserve as much energy as possible and remain alert for the matches against Dartmouth and Harvard, the team opted to fly to New Hampshire rather than handle the long bus trip north. "It definitely made a big difference to fly," senior tri-captain Brooke Herman said. "We got more sleep that way and weren't sore from sitting in the van. We got there in plenty of time and had the chance to relax." The decision to take the expensive route certainly seemed to pay off for the Quakers in their match Friday against the Big Green. Penn grabbed singles victories at Nos. 3, 4, 5 and 6, and because of the number of courts at Dartmouth, started Nos. 1 and 2 doubles while No. 3 waited for a court to open up. But once the No. 2 doubles pair of Anastasia Pozdniakova and Herman dropped their opponent 9-8, the Red and Blue had clinched the victory. Rather than waste unnecessary energy or time playing an essentially meaningless match, coach Michael Dowd chose to forfeit the final match, and the No. 3 team of Elana Gold and senior tri-captain Karen Ridley lost by default. "It was already seven in the evening and we still had to drive to Boston," Dowd said. "We had to play at [noon] the next day and I wanted to get out of there as early as possible." Penn was certainly doing everything possible to gear up for this all-important match against the Crimson. "We practiced hard, got to Boston early and had the chance to warm up," Ridley said. "Plus, we heard that Princeton had barely lost to them the day before and since we had beaten them, we felt like we had a really good chance." But unfortunately for the Quakers, it was not their day. Louani Bascara won her singles match at No. 6, providing the only point for the Red and Blue. And although both No. 4 Herman and No. 5 Shubha Srinivasan took their opponents to three sets, the Harvard team simply outplayed Penn and had many of the key points go their way. "It was just like any other Ivy match we had played, except that every other time we ended up on top at the end," Dowd said. "I felt when Harvard won the second sets at Nos. 4 and 5, the momentum changed toward them and away from us. It happened so fast. "We were looking real good at one point, and then it just collapsed. Harvard stepped up and we did not." Though the team members were incredibly disappointed by the loss, they felt that they gave their best effort and that the overall match was indeed a lot closer than the 8-1 score indicated. "We are all obviously very disappointed," Herman said. "We had been working hard the entire year, and we gave it 100 percent. That's all you can really ask." "I think this was the worst loss I have ever had," said Ridley, who played her penultimate collegiate match over the weekend. "Every match was extremely close and they just outplayed us. Each of them was so pumped and ready to play because our team was undefeated and ranked higher and they all performed. It was just such an upsetting and emotional situation."