W. Tennis stars head to ITA Regionals

There are plenty of good women's college tennis players in the East Coast -- and all of them will be competing in this weekend's ITA Eastern Regionals. The Penn women's tennis team's top three players, seniors Anastasia Pozdniakova and Elana Gold and junior Lenka Beranova, will finish off their fall season as they head to Harvard tomorrow to compete in the four-day tournament. "[The ITAs are] a chance to see how we stand in relation to the best players in the East," Penn coach Michael Dowd said. "[To win] you have to play six matches at the highest level you can play. It's going to be tough." The regionals will begin with singles competition on Saturday, while doubles will take place on Sunday. The semifinals and finals will be held on Monday and Tuesday, respectively. To win the tournament, a player must win all six of her matches. The winner of the ITAs will go on to compete in the Rolex National Indoor Championships, which will be held in early February. Pozdniakova and Gold will be playing singles, while Gold will also team up with Beranova to compete in the doubles competition this weekend. Last year, when Penn hosted the ITAs, Pozdniakova advanced to the quarterfinals in singles play before losing to William and Mary's Tari Ann Toro in a close, three-set match. A William and Mary duo also defeated the doubles team of Gold and then-senior Brooke Herman, defeating the Quakers in an 8-1 match. Pozdniakova sees this weekend as an opportunity for "personal achievement" and feels little pressure about her results. This weekend, the senior co-captain will likely face opponents who she has previously played in team matches. "I keep playing the No. 1 players," she said. "I already know their game and they know mine. I just have to think that I'm just as good as they are and if they can beat me that's fine, but I'm not going to give away matches." As seniors, Pozdniakova and Gold, the other Penn co-captain, will be playing in one of their last individual tournaments this weekend. "There's always a little extra sentimentality when you play a tournament three years in a row and [then] know it's your last time," Gold said. "It works to your advantage. I'm going to give it my all and go out smiling." Both Gold and Pozdniakova noted the two-week break since their last formal competition -- the ECAC Championships at Princeton on October 15 -- as something that may or may not work to their advantage. "We took a few days off after the Eastern Collegiates," Gold said. "Sometimes it's hard to have a few days off but sometimes it can work to our advantage and help motivate us." Pozdniakova also acknowledged that at this time of year, midterms can sometimes interfere with practice. To get back into competitive mode for this weekend, Pozdniakova, Gold and Beranova have been playing matches against each other in practice, in addition to daily drills. "I look at [the ITAs] as an opportunity to see how you fare against the region's best players," Gold said. "It's the icing on the cake from having a good fall season."