The ice water felt good.
Coaches Mike Dowd and Sara Schiffman and senior co-captain Ashley Lostritto got the celebratory bath on Saturday as the women's tennis team beat Columbia 7-0 to cap a perfect Ivy League season.
As the music blared and his players celebrated, a wet coach Dowd described the mood: "It's a tremendous feeling," he said. "At the beginning of the year it was our goal to win an Ivy League championship and get back to the NCAA tournament. Today we accomplished that goal."
"At the start of the season each player wrote down their goals for the year and winning the Ivy League title was on everyone's piece of paper," Lostritto said.
The Quakers trounced Cornell 6-1 Friday to guarantee a share of the title. But there was no intensity lost after the banner was in hand.
"We wanted to go undefeated," Lauren Sadaka said. "This title was ours and we didn't want to share it with anyone."
Sadaka also posted an undefeated mark on the season after winning her matches last weekend to cap off a 15-0 record for the spring season.
"I just tried to take it each match one by one," Sadaka said. "When I got to 10-0 it became more real. I was 13-0 coming into this weekend and just said to myself 'I want to do this, I want to get to 15-0.'"
Sadaka was so dominant that she never went to a third set all year.
"She is relentless out there," Dowd said. "She doesn't give away any points. She doesn't have bad days. That's why you can have a player go 15-0."
Ekaterina Kosminskaya won both her No. 1 singles matches leaving her a perfect 7-0 for the Ivy league season.
Saturday will be remembered not only for the championship but also for Lostritto's Ivy League debut. The senior captain rarely cracks the everyday starting lineup, but she started at No. 6 singles against the Lions. Lostritto did not disappoint, demolishing her opponent 6-0, 6-0.
"Ashley has been a huge part of this program," Dowd said. "She has been a mentor, coach, friend and leader to all these players. She would probably be a starter for many Ivy teams. She went out and proved that today without surrendering a game."
The whole team was energized to see Lostritto in the lineup in her final home match.
"We wanted this so much for Ashley," fellow captain Yulia Rivelis said. "She played wonderfully."
And while Lostritto "could [not] have asked for a better way to leave this great program," the team is now looking to the NCAA tournament. The Quakers' seeding and first round competitor will come during a May 1 selection show. Last year, No. 45 Penn drew No. 30 Tennessee in the first round and won in Atlanta, 4-2, before falling to powerhouse Georgia Tech in round two.
