Penn senior Alice Pirsu finally hit a stumbling block on her magical road through the NCAA Singles Championships as she took on No. 7 Amber Liu of Stanford in the quarterfinals.
Despite dominating the first set against the No. 4 singles player in the country, Pirsu's road to the Final Four was halted as she fell to Liu, 6-1, 1-6, 1-6.
"I had a pretty good tournament and I am happy with the way things turned out," Pirsu said.
The Bucharest, Romania native was the only unranked player to advance to the quarterfinals this year, as Pirsu posted wins over Jenny Kuhn of Tulane, No. 9-16 seed Chloe Carlotti of Fresno State, and Viktoria Stokaslova of South Alabama.
"Even though I did not get to the Final Four, I enjoyed playing against the best in the nation and having a good run," Pirsu said.
After her victory over Stokaslova in the Sweet 16, Pirsu became only the second female athlete in Ivy League history -- and the first in Penn history -- to advance to tennis' Elite Eight.
By advancing to the Sweet 16, Pirsu earned All-American status for the second consecutive year.
Pirsu became the first Penn women's tennis player to be named an All-American last year.
The senior completed the 2003 season with a record of 18-4 overall and a dominant 6-1 record against Ivy League opponents.
After entering the season ranked No. 14 the nation, Pirsu finished the 2003 outdoor season ranked No. 23 in the country.
This year, Pirsu recorded wins over several ranked players, including No. 8 Carlotti, No. 19 Amanda Johnson of Duke, No. 26 Nataly Cahana of Old Dominion and No. 30 Candice Fuchs of William & Mary.
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