For Penn women’s tennis, success came easy this weekend.
The 17th annual Cissie Leary Tournament was a chance for the Red and Blue to build on the success they found earlier this season at the Columbia Invitational and to compete against teams from 14 other schools.
In the second tournament of their fall season, top singles players junior Sol Eskenazi and sophomore Sonya Latycheva advanced to the finals where Eskenazi defeated Latycheva in a walkover.
Penn found great success during the first of the tournament’s three days, winning 15 of their 21 matches. The second day saw three of the Quakers’ singles and three doubles teams advance to the quarterfinals, with Eskenazi and Latycheva advancing to the singles finals.
The quarterfinals included a singles match between two Penn teammates as Eskenazi defeated freshman Luba Vazhenina in two nearly flawless sets, 6-0, 6-0. Meanwhile, Latycheva took down St. John’s freshman Anna Morozova for the second time in two weeks, dispatching her in straight sets, 6-0, 6-2, after a three-set marathon last weekend.
In the semifinals on Sunday, Latycheva defeated Princeton’s Sivan Krems in a tough match, 6-7 (6), 6-4, 7-5, during which she suffered a leg injury. Eskenazi fought past Maryland’s Kristina Hovsepyan in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4. With Latycheva injured, the final was never actually played.
This was the 17th year of the Cissie Leary Tournament, held in the memory of legendary Penn women’s tennis coach Cissie Leary, who died in 1996. Leary coached at Penn for 20 years, starting in 1977 and leading the team to 16 winning seasons.
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