Alice Pirsu advances to Quarterfinals

How does Penn women's tennis phenom Alice Pirsu find herself among college women's tennis elite? By always striving for more.

After returning to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Singles Championships -- earning her a spot on the All-America team -- for her second consecutive year, the Bucharest, Romania native was determined to improve upon last season's finish.

"Every year I try to do better," Pirsu said before her Round of 16 match against South Alabama's Viktoria Stoklasova. "I want to do more and more."

And more is what Pirsu got, blitzing her opponent yesterday, 6-2, 6-1 in under an hour and half, thereby advancing to the Quarterfinals.

But Pirsu's victory isn't just a personal best.

It marks the first time a Quaker has advanced to the quarterfinals at the NCAA Singles Championships and only the second time an Ivy League woman has advanced to the Elite Eight.

The Penn senior is next scheduled to take on the nation's fourth ranked player and the tournament's seventh ranked woman -- Amber Liu of Stanford -- today. The odds are seemingly not in Pirsu's favor, as she is the sole remaining unranked player in the tournament.

While Pirsu, the Ancient Eight's only remaining athlete, has already defeated a seeded player in this tournament -- No. 9-16 seed Chloe Carlotti from Fresno State -- Liu will most definitely be the toughest competition Pirsu has faced so far.

The Cardinal has beaten several of the nation's top ten players, including No. 3 Agatha Cioroch of Georgia, Arizona State's No. 7 Adria Engel, and tenth-ranked Jewel Peterson from USC.

Pirsu believes that playing such grueling matches every day will help her more than it will hurt her, though.

"It's sometimes tough playing every day at your best," she said. "But as you win, you get more confidence. It's just great to keep going on."

But before today's match begins, Penn coach Michael Dowd says that his star athlete is just trying to keep her cool -- literally and figuratively.

"When she's not playing, we're just trying to relax," he said. "We're keeping her out of this heat."

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