W. Tennis star falls in semis

Anastasia Pozdniakova could not repeat as champion of the Cissie Leary Invitational on Sunday. Last September, Anastasia Pozdniakova -- the No. 1 player on the Penn women's tennis team -- won the second annual Cissie Leary Invitational, beating Boston College's Cynthia Tow 6-4, 6-1. Last weekend, Pozdniakova came close to repeating her feat. On Friday and Saturday, the Quakers' senior co-captain defeated players from Richmond, Dartmouth and Yale on her way to the semifinals. On Sunday, however, Pozdniakova came up against Kavitha Krishnamurthy, a Princeton freshman whose tennis resume includes playing in Junior Wimbledon and the Junior U.S. Open. Krishnamurthy swept Pozdniakova 6-0, 6-0 before beating Tow and winning the tournament. "I was pretty happy with my personal results," Pozdniakova said. "I did the best that I could and that's where it stands." Two of Pozdniakova's Saturday matches lasted three sets. Including the doubles match she and Quakers co-captain Elana Gold played on Friday, Pozdniakova competed in a total of four matches prior to the semifinals. "[Krishnamurthy] definitely had an edge on me in terms of energy level," Pozdniakova said. "She had easier scores in [Saturday's] matches." The tournament is held in honor of former Penn coach Cissie Leary, who coached women's tennis for nearly 20 years before she died of cancer in 1996. Pozdniakova acknowledges that this tournament was especially meaningful for her, since she and Gold, both seniors, were in Leary's last recruiting class. "She was a special person to me," Pozdniakova said. "I just hope that in the years to come, other people will be as excited about this tournament as I was. It's something they should think about when they come to this tournament." Also making their way to the quarterfinals were Penn juniors Lenka Beranova and Shubha Srinivasan. Beranova beat Brown's Becky Rhee and Richmond's Janelle Williams before losing to Krishnamurthy 6-1, 6-3. Srinivasan was victorious in a three-set match with Seton Hall's Laura McCraken. She also beat Yale's Jackie Fu before losing to Penn State's Rebecca Ho. "It's fun to play all these matches, but exhausting," Srinivasan said. Gold lost to Penn State's Alison Barnett in the first round. "I was not satisfied with my personal performance, but I was proud of everyone else's and of how we did as a team," Gold said. "[Barnett] was tougher mentally and physically." Gold believes the tournament was a good way to start the fall season. "I look forward to improving because that's the only place I can go," she said. Penn sophomore Jolene Sloat made it to the second round of the tournament, defeating Yale's Kiki Yin before falling to Cynthia Obsitnik, also of the Elis, in a close 2-6,6-2,7-5 struggle. The Penn doubles teams, however, did not fare too well in the tournament. The Penn pair of Beranova and sophomore Carla Dorsey lost to Dartmouth 8-4. Pozdniakova and Gold were defeated by Boston College in a 9-7 match, while Srinivasan and Jill Mazza fell to Yale's Fu and Obsitnik 8-5. Although this year's results may not be as impressive as last year's, the Quakers seem fairly satisfied with their performances. Because Penn does not compete for the Ivy title until the spring season, the fall is generally regarded as less important. Beranova enjoyed the laid-back and friendly atmosphere of the tournament. "It was the best tournament we've had in three years," Penn coach Michael Dowd said. "I'm not sure if it could have been any better. If a Penn player won it could have been better, but it still went pretty well."