Not even senior Dafna Wegner's return and a vocal home crowd could save No. 5 Penn's undefeated season last night against No. 3 Princeton.
Wegner, a defending second-team All-Ivy player, suited up for the first time since the 2003 Howe Cup, only to fall in three games and watch her team lose to the Tigers, 6-3.
She had been sidelined with a lower back injury and is still not performing at her top level.
After the match, Wegner, who has been practicing with the squad daily since the beginning of the semester, was quick to begin icing her back.
"I told her not to be too tough on herself," said Penn coach Jim Martel, whose Quakers dropped to 7-1 on the season.
Wegner was happy to play, but looks forward to stronger matches.
"It feels great, only I was really disappointed today," Wegner said. "It can only get better from here."
Freshman Radhika Ahluwalia posted Penn's only 3-0 win, while sophomores Lorin Riley and Rhea Bhandare also won for the Quakers.
The environment at the match was typical of any Penn-Princeton matchup, consisting of a large, boisterous crowd full of supporters from both sides.
Princeton freshman Ali Pearson, who defeated Wegner 9-6, 9-6, 9-6, thoroughly enjoyed her first experience in the rivalry.
"I know most of the [Penn] team," said Pearson, a Chestnut Hill, Pa., native. "It's like playing against my home."
Martel also enjoyed the experience, but believed the results of a rowdier crowd were not all positive.
"It helps us certainly for morale and sometimes for support," Martel said. "But our players have a tendency to try too hard."
While this is a difficult loss to deal with, the Quakers will have to look to the future and matches against Trinity, Yale, Harvard and Dartmouth, all of which hold spots in the nation's top six along with Penn and Princeton.
The addition of Wegner to the lineup should help the Quakers all the way down the ladder, as Wegner's No. 3 rank bumped Ahluwalia to fourth and gave every lower player an easier match.
Sunday will be the last home match of the season for the Quakers, as the nation's No. 1 team, Yale, visits the Ringe Courts.
The Elis (6-0, 2-0 Ivy) currently sit a half-game out of first place in the Ivy League standings behind Princeton. Harvard is also 2-0 in the Ancient Eight.
Penn is now alone in third place in the Ivy standings, a half-game ahead of Dartmouth.
