The Columbia women's tennis team closed out its home season with a bang, as the Lions earned their first Ivy League win of the year, and the first under Head Coach Ilene Weintraub, with a 5-2 defeat of Penn. The team also used the opportunity to honor senior co-captain Carling Donovan, who was playing her last match at the Dick Savitt Tennis Center, and had two huge wins that Friday.



The Lions opened the match with a hard-fought doubles point, that saw Columbia earn the early 1-0 lead. Junior Natasha Makarova and first-year Katarina Kovacevic were the first off the court for the Lions, as they won in the No. 3 singles spot, 8-5. Shortly after, first-year Nicole Bartnik and Donovan followed them, beating Penn's No. 1 pair, 8-4, and clinching the doubles point in Columbia's favor. At No. 2, Eliza Matache and Chelsea Davis had fallen behind early, 6-1. But the pair staged an outstanding rally, winning six straight games, and taking a 7-6 lead. But the Quaker duo kept fighting, and with the score tied up at 8-8, the match went to a tiebreaker. There, Penn held on and won, 11-9, taking the match 9-8. But it was to no avail, as Columbia already had the 1-0 team lead.



Singles proved to be a heated battle between the two Ivy League rival teams. First off the court was the No. 4 singles match, where Penn senior Jackie Wong defeated Kovacevic, 6-2, 6-4. With the score tied up at 1-1, the match was dead even, but the Lions had first set wins under their belts at Nos. 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6, so Columbia was able to keep its cool. Davis had one of the easiest wins of the day for Columbia, and was next to finish, as she crushed former juniors rival Emily Wolf, 6-2, 6-1. And just a few minutes later, Matache made it 3-1, as she defeated Daniela DePaoli, 6-0, 6-4.



Columbia was just one point from the team win, and two Lions had a shot at clinching the match for their team: Makarova in the No. 3 spot, and Donovan, who was playing at No. 6. As the two girls raced to finish first, Makarova managed to pull ahead and win, beating Jules Rodin, 6-4, 6-3, and clinching the team win for Columbia. Just seconds later, Donovan won her own match, soundly beating Whitfield, 6-2, 6-1.