After completing their second-straight undefeated run through the Ivy League -- and taking home their second-consecutive league crown -- the Penn women's tennis team (14-5 overall, 7-0 Ivy) has earned itself another berth to the NCAA Tournament.
Last year in Penn's first-ever trip to the NCAAs, the unseeded Quakers pulled arguably the shocker of the first round, toppling No. 19 Pepperdine before falling in the second round to Baylor in Waco, Tex.
This season, a battle-tested and ranked Penn team comes into the postseason tournament with even greater expectations.
"Making it to the NCAAs last year was a big thing in itself," Penn sophomore captain Sanela Kunovac said. "We had never won the Ivies before, never made it to the NCAAs, so everything we did was just a huge thing."
"But now we've been there and now we're gunning for the second round, the Sweet 16, however, as far as we can get."
No. 56 Penn's first-round foe Richmond -- whom the Quakers will meet on Friday in Durham, N.C. -- looks to be hardly the opening round challenge that the 14-time West Coast Conference champion Waves were last season.
While to their credit the Spiders(12-9, 4-0 Atlantic 10) did capture the A-10 title with an undefeated record, Richmond is hardly a team that makes the Quakers shudder.
In losing all six of their matches against ranked foes this season, the Spiders have been outscored, 36-6.
Penn also owns a victory over Richmond, having defeated the Spiders, 5-2, when the two teams met last season.
On paper this doesn't appear to be the first-round test that the Quakers were expecting.
"It feels really good to go into an NCAA match as a favorite," Penn sophomore Nicole Ptak said. "I never expected that to happen."
While Penn, having played Richmond last season has some familiarity with the Spiders, it is Ptak who knows the Richmond lineup best. The Great Neck, N.Y. native has played three of the Spiders six singles players -- junior Vanessa Bagnato, sophomore Jeannette Cluskey and freshman Courtney Klein -- and actually has quite a history with Bagnato.
Bagnato, like Ptak, hails from Long Island, N.Y., and as Ptak recalls, used to refused to play with the Quakers' standout when the two were junior tennis players.
"Vanessa and I grew up together and I was just horrible," Ptak said. "She would never want to play with me. She would just refuse to play and we'd never hit."
But that all changed last season when the two met in the Cissie Leary Invitational in Philadelphia. Ptak downed her fellow Long Islander, 6-4, 7-5, and earned Bagnato's respect.
"After I beat her at Cissie Leary, her father came up to me and got my number," Ptak said. "We practiced together all summer."
And while Ptak has now gotten herself on equal footing with her long-time rival, she is also anxious to lead the Quakers past Bagnato and Richmond in the NCAAs.
"We beat [Richmond] last year so it shows if we play well, we can beat them," Ptak said. "We just need to stay focused and get the job done."
Getting the job done will be a little bit tougher for Penn against its likely second-round opponent. If the first round holds form, the Quakers will be facing ACC juggernaut No. 4 Duke(23-4, 11-1 ACC) -- who meets University of Maryland-Baltimore County(19-5, 5-0 Northeast Conf.) on Friday -- in the round of 32.
The subregional host, Duke has been ranked in the nation's top-five nearly every week this season -- the Blue Devils slipped to No. 7 in the March 20 poll -- and have been as high as No. 2 in the nation.
The Blue Devils own a 20-4 record against ranked foes and possess a singles lineup that has four ranked players -- including the nation's fifth-best singles' player, freshman Kelly McCain(31-10).
Aside from McCain's 31 wins, four other Blue Devils -- No. 23 Amanda Johnson (25-8), No. 35 Julie DeRoo (30-10), No. 63 Saras Arasu (26-7) and Ioana Plesu (22-12) -- have won 20 matches. No. 6 singles Katie Granson is not too far behind having posted and 18-8 record this season.
But this championship contender is not coming into the NCAAs with a lofty record alone. The Blue Devils are entering the NCAAs with an axe to grind.
Just one week removed from a 5-2 victory over rival North Carolina, Duke suffered a heartbreaking 4-3 loss to the same North Carolina team in the ACC Championship match on April 21.
Factor in that the hungry Blue Devils will be playing on their home courts -- Ambler Tennis Stadium -- and it seems that Penn's chances of advancing past the second round are slim at best.
But don't tell the upset-minded Quakers tell this.
"This year, we've beaten top teams all year so really anything is possible," Ptak said. "We know that anything can happen in the tournament because we remember beating Pepperdine last year, and we know that they didn't expect to lose to us."
"We're just going to play our hearts out and hopefully we'll end up on the right end of the score."
