William and Mary competed against Pennsylvania Feb. 23 at the McCormack-Nagelsen Tennis Center in Williamsburg. Despite a close matchup, the Quakers were able to rally for a 4-2 win over the Tribe.
Junior Natalia Perry and freshman Mila Saric were able to give the Tribe the early lead in their doubles event with a win at No. 3. The duo eked out a 6-1 triumph over the Quakers’ Mimi Levine and Ashley Zhu. Perry and Saric improved to 5-2 and ultimately took No. 3 for the Tribe.
Despite a Quaker victory at the No. 2 spot, sophomore Vitoria Okuyama and senior Clara Tanielian took the initial point in their match with a victory at the top spot. Rallying from an early deficit, they ran four-straight points in their final game to come out 6-4 over Quakers Marta Kowalska and Marija Curnic. The duo remained undefeated in dual-match play, at 3-0.
Not to be outdone, the Quakers came back with three-straight straight-set wins in order to propel themselves to 3-2. No. 97 ranked Iuliia Bryzgalova took the Quakers’ top spot, while Kowalska won at No. 2 to tie the match. Quaker Mimi Levine defeated Tribe junior Charlotte Madson, 7-5, 6-4, at No. 6 to give Penn their advantage.
The match ultimately came down to a pair of three-straight set matches at the No. 3 and No. 5 singles stations. Tanielian split her opening two sets with Curnic, but was ultimately edged out by Curnic, claiming victory for the Quakers. At No. 5, senior Lauren Goodman dropped her opening set in a tiebreaker with Quaker OJ Singh but rallied for a 6-4 win in the second. Singh held the advantage in the third set before it was abandoned with the team results having been decided.
Next, the Tribe seeks to take out its Atlantic 10 foe of George Washington University Feb. 24 at McCormack-Nagelson.