Ivy title hopes still very real for W. Tennis

Despite a tough loss to league power Princeton, the Quakers can still make waves at Yale and Brown. Even though losing to Princeton 6-3 last Saturday wasn't the most auspicious way to open its Ivy season, the Penn women's tennis team is still in contention for the Ancient Eight title. But whether the Quakers (8-9, 0-1 Ivy League) remain in the hunt depends on how they do this weekend when they head north to face Brown and Yale. Though neither Brown nor Yale is expected to be nearly as tough as the talented Tigers -- whose No. 1 player, freshman Kavitha Krishnamurthy, is ranked No. 20 in the nation -- beating these teams will be no easy task, as the Quakers learned last spring. When Penn faced the Bears and the Elis at home in a weekend last April, both matches were knotted at three-all after singles play. The Quakers moved on to sweep their opponents in doubles, though, and took both matches, 6-3, exemplifying the sort of intestinal fortitude necessary for Penn to win a championship. Penn's showdown against Princeton last Saturday was three-all after singles as well -- only there was no happy ending for Penn this time around. The Quakers fell hard in all three of their doubles matches, finishing the match down 6-3. "We've been working on doubles all week to make sure that doesn't happen again," Penn junior Lenka Beranova said. "From No. 1 to No. 3 [Princeton's doubles were] very aggressive and they were very prepared. We weren't being aggressive enough." To improve their doubles play, the Quakers have been concentrating on solidifying their serves and returns in practice this week. But Penn coach Michael Dowd emphasized that the most important thing the doubles teams can do this weekend is take control of the net. The Quakers feel they need to take more of the initiative when it comes to serve-and-volleying. "We have to work at not being afraid of the ball and going after it," Dowd said. In preparation for this weekend's matches, Penn junior Shubha Srinivasan also noted that the Quakers have been trying out new doubles combinations, working on being more consistent at having longer points in their singles matches. Having a healthy team this weekend will help too -- nearly half of the Quakers had the flu during Saturday's Princeton match. While the Quakers are healthy and ready to win, this weekend clearly does not mark the peak of their league schedule. Neither Brown nor Yale has an especially daunting record. The Bears are currently on a nine-match losing streak. At 1-11, they have not won a match since they played UMass in early February. In addition, Brown was edged 5-4 by Seton Hall, a team the Quakers breezed by, 8-1, on March 7. The Elis have a slightly more impressive record, as they currently are 9-7. Their most recent matches include a hard, 9-0 defeat to Cal-Irvine and a 6-3 win over Boston College -- a team the Quakers beat handily, 7-2, in March. Beranova believes that while Penn is not "expecting to blow [Brown and Yale] off the court" this weekend, the upcoming matches are definitely winnable. And despite the Quakers' loss to Princeton, the Ivies are far from over. "Just because you lose one match doesn't rule you out," Beranova said. "There are tough matches ahead of us, but there are also tough matches ahead of [Princeton]. It all depends on who's gonna take the challenge first and crush and destroy."

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