Upon return home, W. Tennis smashes B.C.

Last March, the Penn women's tennis team edged Boston College, 5-4, in a tight battle in California that came down to the final doubles match. On Saturday, however, the Quakers had little trouble beating the Eagles, 7-2, at Penn's Lott Courts. That isn't to say the Eagles aren't formidable opponents -- their top player, Cynthia Tow, is nationally ranked and won the Harvard Invitational championship in singles last spring. But on Saturday, the Quakers did not seem to care about Boston College's past accolades in brushing the Eagles aside. "We played a great match," Penn senior co-captain Elana Gold said. "They're a tough team, but today we didn't make them look very tough." Though Tow had little trouble beating Penn junior Lenka Beranova, 6-1, 6-1, at No. 1 singles, the Quakers were undefeated in the remaining five singles matches. When the match score was 4-1, it was Jolene Sloat's three-set win at No. 6 singles over the Eagles' Ruitas Veitas that sealed the victory for the Red and Blue. After Sloat easily won the first set, 6-1, Veitas adjusted to the Penn sophomore's heavy topspin and deep shots by coming into the net and lobbing the ball. "I lost the second set [6-1] because I started playing to her game," Sloat said. "I wasn't playing the way I usually do." Sloat, who was unaware that her match would guarantee the victory, returned to her deep hitting style for the third set and made a few shots that almost sent Veitas running into the surrounding fence. Playing the decisive set on her own terms, Sloat took the match, 6-1, 1-6, 6-3. Though they didn't have much luck in singles, the Eagles proved themselves worthy doubles opponents. At No. 1 doubles, Tow and Karen Fernando held off the Penn duo of Beranova and sophomore Rochelle Raiss, 8-4. Quakers senior co-captain Anastasia Pozdniakova and sophomore Louani Bascara faced the Eagles' Barbara Privell and Mercedes Del Valle at No. 2 doubles. The Penn duo won the see-saw battle, 8-6. "They were a talented doubles team, and they were good at net," Bascara said. While the first two doubles matches were tough battles for both sides, Penn's Gold and Shubha Srinivasan expended little energy in thrashing Fernando and Veitas, 8-2. Though the score was rather unimpressive, Boston College assistant coach Bruce Pierce thought his team did very well, considering they have traveled extensively recently and were fatigued on Saturday. The Eagles' most recent trip was to Las Vegas last week, where Penn also went over spring break before it traveled to California to play Stanford and Fresno State. On their trip, the Eagles took a tough 9-0 loss to UNLV -- a team the Quakers had beaten 5-4 a few days earlier. While Pierce emphasized that his team was tired from traveling, the Quakers felt that the tough schedule they faced on the trip was helpful to them in facing the Eagles. "Boston College is good on the top of their lineup, whereas Stanford's No. 6 player is nationally ranked," Gold said. "The high level of competition we saw [over break] definitely helped us today." The Eagles are nearly the last non-Ivy competition the Quakers will face this season. Penn will face Rutgers tomorrow at 2 p.m. before meeting Princeton on April 1.

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