W. Tennis blows Pirates straight out of the water

Georgia Tech might have had its way with the Penn women's tennis team, 9-0, last weekend, but it was the Quakers who got the taste of a landslide victory yesterday when they trampled Seton Hall, 8-1, at Penn's Levy Tennis Pavilion. "We swept them in singles," Penn senior co-captain Anastasia Pozdniakova said. "When I came off the court, half the team was done already." Pozdniakova had no trouble wiping the hardcourt with her singles opponent, 6-2, 6-2, in the No. 2 position. At No.1 singles, Penn junior Shubha Srinivasan swept Pille Arike in straight sets, 6-3,6-2. Though Srinivasan predicted her victory early in the match, Arike was no easy opponent. "She was very consistent," Srinivasan said. "I had to wait for the right ball [to get points]." Penn sophomore Jolene Sloat played No.3 singles and handily defeated Evelyn Macko, 6-1,6-1. Penn's Louani Bascara and Rochelle Raiss also easily won their matches at No. 5 and 6 singles, respectively. Not all of the Quakers had such easy matches, though. Penn senior co-captain Elana Gold lost her first set in disappointing fashion but rebounded to eke out a hard-fought three-set victory. "[Elana] picked it up after the first set and realized she was better than the other girl," Penn junior Lenka Beranova said. "She fought her way through with her mental toughness." After winning all six of the singles matches, Penn had already clinched the match but still had three doubles matches to play. The Quakers won the doubles point after the duos of Beranova and Raiss and Srinivasan and Niki DeCou won their matches, 8-3 and 8-4, respectively. Beranova recently began playing with Raiss, a transfer from UCLA. She believes their individual strengths complement each other extremely well. "She and I make a great team," Beranova said. "We have the same level of intensity. We're like one when we're out there." Srinivasan believes a strong start helped her and DeCou in the end, when their opponents began to make tougher shots. "It's very important to play intense at the beginning," Srinivasan said. "Tennis is all about intensity." At No.1 doubles, the pair of Pozdniakova and Bascara faced the Pirates' Arike and Judy McAuley. Though Pozdniakova and Bascara kept their opponents racing around their end of the court and made a number of tough shots themselves, the Pirates tandem eventually won the battle, 8-6. "We had a lot of chances we didn't capitalize on," Pozdniakova said. "We made some mistakes we shouldn't have, but it gives us something to work on." That the sole Pirate victory was in doubles was no surprise to Seton Hall coach Tracy Zawicki. "We always do better in doubles," Zawicki said. "Doubles is our strength. It's disappointing to lose [6-0] in singles. I know how tough Penn is because we played them last year, but I thought we'd give them a better match in singles. It's upsetting." Penn coach Michael Dowd was surprised that the Quakers won by such a robust margin, especially since the Pirates recently beat Ivy opponent Brown. Dowd believes that even though Penn lost to both nationally ranked Georgia Tech and Clemson last weekend, playing such high-level teams gave the Quakers valuable experience that helped lead them to victory yesterday. "We saw how much we've improved," he said. "We got a lot of confidence today." Both Dowd and Beranova noted the Quakers remained especially focused during their matches yesterday. "It's important to stay focused, even when you're up 5-0, because you never know what kind of player your opponent is going to be," Beranova said. "This match will help us be prepared for the Ivy season, so we can kick some butt."

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