Penn women’s tennis proved solid enough to win handily at Levy Tennis Pavilion, even after splitting up the best duo in the Northeast region — freshman Sonya Latycheva and sophomore Sol Eskenazi.
In the first game of the Quakers’ Saturday doubleheader, coach Sanela Kunovac decided to split up Latycheva and Eskenazi against Lehigh, which the Red and Blue shut out, 7-0.
They were back together against St. Joseph’s in another 7-0 blowout victory for Penn.
The wins were not surprising, as Penn (2-0) came into the day a combined 15-0 all-time against the two programs.
The Quakers made quick work of the Mountain Hawks (0-1). The closest doubles match was 8-2 and the tightest singles match was 6-2, 6-0.
Complacency can be an issue after such dominating victories, but according to Kunovac, that’s not the case with this team.
“I think they are very motivated already,” she said. “We have a little bit of a gap until our next match, so this was a good test for us to see what we have.”
The afternoon matchup with St. Joseph’s (0-1) was just as successful for the Red and Blue.
Doubles partners Latycheva and Eskenazi played together against St. Joe’s and got an 8-1 victory for Penn.
In singles, the tightest match was a 6-3, 6-3 victory in the No. 1 singles position where Eskenazi bested St. Joe’s sophomore Aurora Davis.
The Penn women’s team will be back in action on Feb. 9 against Rutgers at the Levy Tennis Pavilion.
“We actually hope for a bigger challenge in terms of physical and mental,” Kunovac said. “Today we were so zoned in that it was kind of difficult for anyone to take them out of that zone.”
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