The Penn women's tennis team's fall season will come to a close this weekend at the team's most important fall tournament, the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's East Regional Championships at Virginia Tech. In order to play in Blacksburg, Va., all of the athletes had to qualify at different events this year.
The tournament will feature all of the top players in the East and each of the finalists from the singles competition will earn a trip to the National Indoor Championships. Meanwhile, the winner of the doubles matches will receive an automatic bid to Nationals.
The rest of the spots are then assigned to the top-ranked players in the country following all of the regional championships throughout the nation.
The team is coming off of a strong performance in Flushing, N.Y., last weekend and hopes to have even more success in Blacksburg. Despite the high level of competition they will face this weekend, the Quakers are confident about their chances.
Only four of Penn's players will play and Ptak, junior Shelah Chao and sophomore Caroline Stanislawski are seeded.
Co-captain Nicole Ptak said that all of the Quakers "have the potential to do well and get far in the tournament."
Chao will be looking to repeat last year's success, when she teamed up with Alice Pirsu to win the doubles title.
Penn coach Michael Dowd expects his players "to do very well at the tournament."
Although the competition will be fierce, the Penn team has played very well so far. Sophomore standout Stanislawski has had a perfect record at her last two tournaments.
After weeks of practice, Dowd is confident that his team is "playing very well right now, and peaking at the right time."
