Though a fresh coat of snow is presently covering the Hamlin Tennis Center, winter weather isn’t about to slow down Penn women’s tennis.
Saturday, the Quakers will travel to State College, Pa., to take on No. 57 Penn State and Marshall in their first road match of the season.
Penn (2-2) is facing a familiar foe in the host Nittany Lions (3-4) and an unfamiliar one in the Thundering Herd (3-2). The Red and Blue have evenly split the 32-game all-time series with Penn State but have only played Marshall twice, winning meetings in 2007 and 2008.
The Quakers got off to a slow start to the season but have come alive as of late, winning back-to-back matches over Akron and Rutgers by identical 6-1 margins.
Penn’s top performer over the course of its recent winning streak may have been junior Sol Eskenazi.
Playing at No. 1 singles, Eskenazi easily won both of her last two matches in straight sets. A repeat performance would have the Red and Blue in good position to pick up another weekend sweep.
The always pesky doubles point may also ultimately prove critical to the result of this weekend’s matches.
Eskenazi has played a key role in Penn’s doubles point wins over the previous weekend, teaming up with freshman Kana Daniel to win both of their matches.
There could be some rust on the road for Penn, which hasn’t played outside of Philadelphia since Oct. 22. But if the Quakers manage to shake it off quickly, another sweep could be on its way.
