Princeton to host W. Tennis in Ivy opener

The Quakers are hoping that their string of victories since returning from spring break continues. After competing against five nationally ranked teams over spring break and breezing by Boston College and Rutgers last week with landslide victories of 7-2 and 9-0, respectively, the Penn women's tennis team is plenty warmed-up for its Ivy season. Tomorrow the Quakers will head to New Jersey to challenge powerhouse Princeton, the consensus favorite to win the Ivy title this year. Penn opened last year's Ivy season by edging the Tigers, 5-4. That win was the Quakers' first in a nearly flawless Ivy season. The Red and Blue overpowered every Ivy team except Harvard -- which ultimately captured the Ivy title following Penn's disappointing 1-8 loss. After the Quakers took a second-place Ivy finish last year, Penn coach Michael Dowd created a tougher schedule for the Quakers this spring -- including Fresno State, Georgia Tech and No. 1 Stanford -- to better prepare the Quakers for this year's Ivy schedule. "It has definitely helped to see such a high level of competition," Penn senior and co-captain Elana Gold said. "[Princeton's] not nearly as good as a lot of the teams we've played so far." Penn junior Shubha Srinivasan believes that beginning the Ivy season by facing one of the tougher teams will prove helpful to the Quakers. "Last year our match with Princeton gave us a lot of confidence," she said. "It helps to get Princeton out of the way." However, beating Princeton this spring may be even more difficult than it was last April. In October, the Quakers fell to the Tigers, 5-1, when they faced them at the ECAC Championships. In addition, at Penn's Cissie Leary Invitational -- an individual competition held in September -- Princeton freshman phenomenon Kavitha Krishnamurthy swept Penn's Anastasia Pozdniakova, 6-0, 6-0, on her way to winning the tournament. Krishnamurthy is currently ranked No. 20 in the nation. Over the fall and winter, the Canadian native had a 22-match winning streak, during which she won six tournaments -- including the Georgia Invitational and the ITA Eastern Regionals. It has not yet been determined whether Krishnamurthy will compete on Saturday, as she has been spending time in Canada visiting a sick relative and has not played in the last few Princeton matches. Tough players and all, Srinivasan notes that the Tigers' recent record has not been very daunting at all. In its last match, Princeton edged Boston College -- a team Penn recently clobbered, 7-2 -- by a mere point. The Tigers took a hard, 7-2 fall to UC-Irvine on March 14, and barely squeaked by Loyola Marymount, 5-4, a few days later. Gold believes that since Penn faced Princeton in the fall, the currently 8-8 Quakers have improved in winning key points and doubles matches. "A lot of matches come down to doubles," she said. "I think we'll be ready to take it if the match comes down to three-all in singles." Dowd also believes the Quakers are ready to take on Princeton. "We've played a much tougher level of competition than Princeton," he said. "We're hitting the ball cleanly, and we're very confident. We're playing much better than we did in the fall, and if our emotions are in the right place, we have a very good chance to beat this team."

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