Women's tennis defeats Penn State handily, falls to No. 42 UVA, 4-3

After being ranked at No. 60 last year in Division I and finishing 4-3 among the Ancient Eight, the Princeton women's tennis team has not yet established a pattern for the rest of the season. They are primarily an older team, losing only two seniors, which should bode well for the Ivies.

So far the team is 1-1. It's first match was against Penn State, which is ranked at No. 52. The Tigers won four of the six singles and two of the three doubles matches, finishing with a win, 5-2.

In doubles, sophomore Vanti Bhargava and junior Kavitha Krishnamurthy dominated the No. 2 doubles 9-7. Freshman Stephanie Berg and sophomore Alex Kobishyn also won 8-5 at the No. 3 spot.

Singles took an interesting turn as Krishnamurthy won 6-1, 6-3 as did senior co-captain Priya Bhupathi with a score of 6-3, 6-4. The other two singles matches, however, started off a little shaky, both losing their first sets. But in the end, co-captain Kristy Watson came out victorious with a final score of 7-5, 5-7, 6-2 at the number two spot. Berg also dropped her first set but won the next two 6-4, 6-3.

The Tigers were not so fortunate with the No. 5 and 6 spots but the win gave the team a great deal of confidence considering it was the team's first match.

"I thought we all played really well," Berg said. "Against Penn, everyone was really strong and it was really fun to be able to win our first match."

This past weekend, the Tigers matched up against No. 42 UVA and came out with an interesting turn of fate as the No. 5 and 6 spots won their singles matches. Despite those wins, however, the team lost overall 4-3.

Sophomore Jackie Arcario defeated the number five spot Laura James 6-4, 7-5 and sophomore Mateya McCoy won at the No. 6 spot, beating Christine Kim, 6-2, 7-5. Princeton had some tough luck with the other singles matches, but the Cavaliers had to strugle to win three of the four matches were taken to three sets.

Watson, especially, had a close match, coming down to a triple match point after dominating one set 5-1 and being up 40-love, but then the Cavaliers overtook the Tigers in the end.

As for doubles, the Tigers were able to pick up the point with two wins. Bhargava and Krishna-murthy defeated the number two spot 8-6; Berg and Kobishyn defeated the Cavaliers in the final doubles match.

"Against UVA we lost a really close match, but we all played really well," Berg said.

"All the matches were really close. Three of the four singles matches we lost went all the way to three sets. It was just one of those things where had any little thing gone a little differently, we could have pulled the match out. It is really exciting to come that close to beating a ranked team. It was a good experience for us all around."

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Going into the match, the Tigers had high hopes as the No. 1 spot was out due to the stomach flu. Nevertheless, the close score shows hope for the team as they go into Ivy League competition.

"We have a really good shot at the Ivy title this year," Berg said. "Everyone has been playing really well. If everyone can stay healthy, I think we have a really good shot."

Now, at 1-1, the team has some experience under their belt when they will face off against Duke Saturday, Feb 23.