W. Tennis prepares for its most critical match

Four down, three to go. After defeating No. 60 Brown and No. 52 Yale last weekend, only three Ivy opponents stand in the way of the Penn women's tennis team and a first-ever Ivy League title. Currently owners of a 15-0 spring season record and a No. 49 national ranking -- the highest in Penn's history -- the team will travel north this weekend to face what may be the last, and possibly toughest, hurdle of the race. In their first conference match on the road, the Red and Blue will battle Dartmouth (9-4, 2-0), last year's fifth-place league finisher. While Penn defeated the Big Green last year, 6-3, Dartmouth has started off this season very strong. Last weekend, it opened up Ivy play by blanking both Columbia and Cornell, 9-0, to score the team's first ever back-to-back shutouts of conference opponents. But based on past experience, the Quakers should be more concerned about their match on Saturday, when they will face defending champion Harvard. The Crimson defeated the Red and Blue last year, 6-3, and finished the season with a perfect 7-0 record in the league. This season, the 12-time champion Crimson have already racked up two Ivy victories and are unquestionably the team to beat for the Quakers. With Penn having already downed Princeton -- the only other team to hand them a conference loss last season -- Harvard seems to be the last obstacle remaining. "Dartmouth and Harvard are both very tough," Penn coach Michael Dowd said. "But Harvard is still the team to beat in this league.? everyone knows that." The Quakers do own an advantage going into these last matches of the season, though , having already played more than any other Ivy team. However, following the end of Penn's two-week homestand, these will be the first conference matchups of the season the Quakers have played on the road. "It is great that we are playing Dartmouth first because we will get a match on the road under our belts before Harvard," senior tri-captain Brooke Herman said. The team recognizes that playing away from home will be much different than the comfort they are used to at the Lott Courts. On the road, Dowd cannot give out T-shirts and free food to entice cheering Penn fans. "I think they are going to be tough, close matches," said junior Anastasia Pozdniakova, Penn's No. 1 singles player. "We can't expect the crowd to be with us and we are not going to have the whole team there for support. But we are mentally strong and sort of on a roll right now. We just have to do the same things we have been to prepare." The team members do recognize the enormous magnitude of these two matches and they have remained focused despite the fact that their season is winding down to its last three meetings. "Harvard and us are the best teams in the league and I think it will come down between the two of us for the title," Herman said. "We just have to play with the same intensity, concentration and vigor that we had against Yale and Brown."