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Princeton women’s tennis beats Penn to begin Ivy play

The Princeton women’s tennis team (9-7 overall, 1-0 Ivy League) ushered in Ivy League play with a 5-2 victory against Penn (7-6, 0-1) on Saturday. The win extends the Tigers’ streak to three consecutive victories and sets an optimistic precedent for the six remaining games against each of the Ivy League teams.

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The Tigers, ranked 60th in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, faced No. 67 Penn at the Lenz Tennis Center. The annual matchup of the two neighbors consistently marks the beginning of Ivy League tennis at the end of March. With Saturday's win, Princeton women’s tennis has now begun conference play with a victory over Penn for eight consecutive years.

Princeton won the first point of the matchup by winning two of the three doubles sets. The No. 3 doubles team of junior Caroline Joyce and freshman Nicole Kalhorn won 6-2. In No. 1 doubles, the team of senior Amanda Muliawan and junior Dorothy Tang lost 5-7 to the Penn duo of Kana Daniel and Sonya Latycheva.

Princeton senior Emily Hahn and sophomore Katrine Steffensen closed out the doubles matchups by beating their opponents, securing the doubles point for the Orange and Black. Yet the point did not come easily for the Tigers, who relied on a dominant 7-1 tiebreaker victory.

With the competition so tight in the doubles portion of the competition, urgency rose for both teams heading into the singles matches. In the end, Princeton won four of the six singles matchups in straight sets. Though not victorious in doubles, Dorothy Tang, in No. 6 singles, beat OJ Singh in two quick sets of 6-1 each. In No. 2 singles, Steffenson beat her opponent 6-2, 6-4. In No. 1, Amanda Muliawan won 6-0, 6-3. Finally, Nicole Kalhorn, playing No. 5 singles, won 6-4, 6-3.

Turning to the losses, Penn’s Lina Qostal won the No. 4 singles match against Joyce in two close sets of 7-5. In No. 3 singles, Ria Vaidya beat Princeton junior Sivan Krems.

The win helped to build the momentum that the women’s tennis team began in Texas a week earlier. There, the Tigers beat both the University of Houston and Rice. The 4-3 victory against No. 46 Rice was especially encouraging and pushed Princeton into the ITA rankings for the first time since February.

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With a win against another ITA-ranked team, the women’s tennis team will look to continue its rhythm against other Ivy League teams. This Friday and Saturday, the Tigers will take on Brown and Yale at their respective home courts. After winning six of the seven conference matches last season, the Tigers have set a high bar for themselves.

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