Early on in her No. 6 singles match Saturday afternoon, senior captain Kate Williams found herself ahead, 4-3, in a close match. But playing with poise, Williams won eight of the next nine games to charge past Brown's Kelley Kirkpatrick and earn the 6-3, 6-1 decision. The win clinched a Penn victory over the Bears.
Led by strong all-around play, the Penn women's tennis team capped a dominant weekend performance that featured a 5-2 win over Yale and a 6-1 thrashing of Brown.
Williams and her doubles partner Caroline Stanislawski won both of their doubles matches over Yale and Brown. The sizzling No. 3 doubles team has now won seven of its last eight matches as it cruised to 8-2 wins on both Friday and Saturday. The dynamic duo also won a total of four singles matches on the weekend.
"I thought I played well," Williams said after her fourth victory of the weekend. "In doubles, we came out real strong and we never let them get into the matches. We kept the intensity up the whole time."
Doubles play proved to be a key part of the team's success after dropping their first league match against Princeton.
"After losing to Princeton in the first match, we had a tough week of practice," Williams said. "We really decided we were going to treat every match as if it were the most important in the season."
The Quakers (8-5, 2-1 Ivy) rebounded by sweeping both Brown (9-6, 0-2) and Yale (10-4, 1-1) in doubles to pick up the critical point. The No. 1 Penn pairing of Shelah Chao and Julia Koulbitskaya picked up identical 8-3 victories in their two matches. At No. 2, Raluca Ciochina and Michelle Mitchell had two equally successful matches as they won twice, 8-4.
In their victory over Yale, Penn's top two singles players were sufficiently contested. No. 1 singles player Yulia Rivelis dropped her match 6-4, 6-4 to the Eli's Reshmi Srinath. Koulbitskaya, playing at No. 2, lost the first set 6-1 to Rashmee Patil and fell just short in the second set, 7-6.
The Quakers relied on Miller and Chao to carry the weight. Mitchell won easily 6-3, 6-1 at No. 3, and No. 4 player Chao dismantled her opponent 6-0, 6-1 to cap the 5-2 win over the Elis.
Against Brown, Rivelis recovered from her loss by recording a 6-1, 6-2 victory against the Bears' Amanda Saiontz. At the second spot, Koulbitskaya similarly bounced back by posting a 6-3, 6-3 straight sets victory. Chao continued her consistent play with a 6-0, 6-4 win.
The lone loss to the Bears came at No. 3 where Mitchell was outplayed by Daisy Ames 6-3, 6-3.
Overall, coach Michael Dowd was impressed with Penn's solid showing.
"We played very well," he said. We came ready to play and competed real well."
According to Dowd, the Red and Blue will have to improve their play in long points to have a chance to defeat the 18th-ranked Harvard Crimson on the road Friday.
"When we play Harvard, it's always a war," Dowd said.
