W. Tennis hopes 'desire' will be an edge

For the Penn women's tennis team, the time is now or never.

With only four matches left in the season, the Quakers are vying for a second win since their sole victory this season, a 7-0 sweep over George Washington University Feb. 20. They are also craving their first win in the Ivy League.

"We want to give it our all so that we can finish the season on a high note," interim coach Sarah Schiffman said. "I know we've had some tough matches in the past, so we're approaching each match like this is our last and the most important. We're going to try our best and leave it all out there."

Penn (1-12, 0-3 Ivy) will face Dartmouth (7-10, 1-1) first in Hanover, N.H., today. Although Dartmouth is ranked sixth in the league, the Red and Blue still cannot take them "lightly," senior captain Lauren Sadaka said.

"We've beaten them the past [several] years, and it would be really nice to beat them again this year," Sadaka said. "I don't know much about their individual players, because I try not to focus on each individual player. I take each one for who they are and play the best that I can without putting a face to the player."

Last year Penn beat the Big Green, 5-2, in Philadelphia, but "it's hard to compare from year to year," Schiffman said.

Saturday Penn will face a tougher competitor - Harvard. The Crimson (9-7) are currently undefeated in the Ivy League at 2-0. However, they have yet to play any of the ranked Ancient Eight teams: No. 44 Yale, No. 46 Princeton, and No. 60 Brown.

One thing that would help Penn is if Harvard's No. 1 player, senior Beier Ko, misses the match tomorrow. She did not play in the Crimson's 7-0 win over Cornell last Saturday and it is uncertain whether she will compete tomorrow, Schiffman said.

Harvard will play Princeton tonight before its match against the Quakers, so Penn hopes the Tigers will have worn down the Crimson.

However, no matter how Harvard fares, it won't make a difference for Penn.

"I'd rather our team just focus on playing each point as it is and not really worry about the people on the other side of the net," Schiffman said. "Overall, we've been playing good points, working more on consistency and having confidence in our shots. Hopefully it will pay off in our matches."

For it to pay off, Schiffman said it "will be key" for the Red and Blue to win the doubles point and start off the match on a high note.

Despite a tumultuous spring, Sadaka claims that "desire" is one thing the Red and Blue have over their opponents.

"All the teams really want to win, but now we really, really want to win, because we haven't had a good season so far," she said.