The Penn women's tennis team faced its toughest test of the Ivy League season Friday and left with low marks.
The Quakers traveled to Boston to face off against No. 17 Harvard, the highest ranked team in the Ivy League, and lost 7-0.
On Saturday, the squad finished up its road trip with a visit to Hanover, N.H. The Quakers used Dartmouth as an outlet for the previous day's frustrations, plowing through the Big Green, 5-2.
To open Friday's match, the Crimson (13-6, 4-0 Ivy) swept the doubles point. However, No. 1 doubles pair, Shelah Chao and Julia Koulbitskaya, didn't give up easily. They fought through a tough match, losing in a tiebreak, 9-8 (5).
The singles play did not go as planned for the Quakers (9-6, 3-2). Sarah Schiffman, at the No. 6 spot, was the only Penn player of the day to win a singles set.
"Harvard is a very talented team," coach Michael Dowd said after the match.
Although the results may not have been what the team had hoped for, Dowd did not allow his players to hang their heads for very long, as exhibited by their performance against Dartmouth (13-6, 2-2).
In sharp contrast to the match against Harvard, the Red and Blue began by sweeping the doubles point. The partnership of Chao and Koulbitskaya dominated the the Big Green's Jayme Ahmed and Megan Zebroski at the No. 1 position, 8-4.
The singles play was as intense as ever, with three of the matches going to three sets. Although Yulia Rivelis fell at the No. 1 spot to Dartmouth's Ahmed, 7-3, 6-3, her teammates were there to back her up.
Koulbitskaya prevailed at the No. 2 spot over Lindsay Winningham. Chao, Caroline Stanislawski and captain Kate Williams all pushed through their matches to give the Quakers a win.
"These were two tough teams and two totally different matches," Dowd said. "We learned as a team to fight through tough matches. We learned to compete."
After two tough days and with a win under their belt, the team is getting ready for its next match this Friday at Cornell.
