After the Penn State women's tennis team left the Furman Classic with a disappointing finish, they looked to rebound in Flushing Meadows this past weekend, where the Nittany Lions took part in the New York City Invite.

Rebound they did, as the Lions captured wins in both singles and doubles against some of the toughest schools.

Penn State coach Buffy Baker was pleased with her team's overall performance, knowing that the level of competition was a step above what the Lions had seen so far.

"I think coming out of it, especially with the level of competition, that the team fared well." Baker said. "They competed well, and I'm looking to see what they can do against higher levels of competition."

In doubles action, senior Katelyn BeVard and sophomore Leyla Morzan fell to Dartmouth's Jesse Adler and Lindsay Winningham 8-6, while senior Sasha Abraham and junior Jenny Shular also stumbled, losing to Harvard's Lena Litvak and Stephanie Scnitter, 8-2.

Sophomore Dorothy Dohanics and senior Andreea Niculescu fell to Penn's Ashley Lostritto and Lauren Sadaka, 8-4, while freshman Lauren McCarthy and sophomore Lauren Holzberg captured a win against Syracuse's Chelsea Jones and Kasia Zawadzki, 8-4. McCarthy and Holzberg continued their success by defeating Penn's Maria Anisimova and Charlie Tansil, 8-4 in the second round.

Baker was excited about McCarthy and Holzberg's success, and had nothing but praises for them.

"They played some great doubles," she said. "Everyone stepped up that needed to, and overall I thought doubles pretty good."

In the singles matches however, the Lions did not fare as well, with Dohanics defeating Dartmouth's Jamie Caplan (4-6, 6-0) for the lone win. Niculescu lost to Harvard's Laura Peterzan (7-5, 6-1), while Holzberg fell 7-6, 6-3 to Penn's Julia Koulbitskaya.

Abraham came up short as well, losing (6-4, 3-6, 10-4) to Rutgers' Katrina Elder-Bush, and Morzan was defeated by Virginia's Lara Alexander (6-2, 6-2). BeVard was defeated by Boston College's Dasha Cherkasov (6-4, 6-2), McCarthy lost to Princeton's Laura Trimble (6-4, 4-6, 13-11), and Shular was defeated by Penn's Charlie Tansill (6-4, 6-2).

The Lions will head into next weekend with a bye week and a chance to improve on some things. According to Baker, the team will continue to work on technical aspects of their game, and look to use this weekend for a chance to rest up.

"We're still banged up having gone three in a row," she said. "It will be nice to give the girls a breather, and work on some of the technical aspects. We will work on both singles as well as doubles, working on our strategy and breaking things down in order to get better."

After the bye week, the Lions will head to the ITA Regionals at Dartmouth College October 20-22. With each week giving the Lions the opportunity to improve, look for an even stronger showing as the season continues.