Sophomore Leyla Morzan forced Kathryn Duboc of Cornell to hit into the net in the third set, earning her a 4-6, 6-1, 7-5 victory in a marathon match on Saturday.

That win captured the Flight C title and brought an end to the Penn State Invite, as well as an end to the fall season for the Penn State women's tennis team.

The Cornell Big Red brought seven players for Friday's doubles play and Saturday's singles rounds against Penn State. The tournament represented the Nittany Lions' only home matches of the fall season.

Morzan captured Penn State's only singles flight title for the weekend, as the team went 4-6 overall. The Lions were able to excel in doubles, with the team of Jenny Shular and freshman Lauren McCarthy capturing the overall doubles title and Penn State gaining a record of 4-2 against the Big Red.

McCarthy and Shular also both competed in the top flight of the tournament against the top two players from Cornell. Though both lost in the first round of the flight, the growth of McCarthy was one of the highlights of the fall season for head coach Buffy Baker.

"Lauren is starting to settle, she's a freshman and she's finding herself on the court," Baker said. "It's great for us to see a freshman step up and play the top two players at another school and play at that level. It's a good indication of where she is and what she's going to bring."

McCarthy took the eventual Flight A championship, Kasia Preneta, to three sets in the semifinal before dropping the match by the eventual score of 6-1, 4-6, 6-0.

Senior Andreea Niculescu fought her way into a spot in the Flight B championship match before losing to Elizabeth Googe in straight sets, 7-6 (5), 6-1.

The Flight C title won by Morzan was a highlight of the tournament for Baker, who thought it could signal a maturing of Morzan's game.

"More than just winning the flight, what she did better than I've seen her do since she's been at Penn State is competing consistently at a high level throughout her match," Baker said. "She played to win instead of playing to keep from losing, which I think she had more of a tendency to go to in pressure situations last year."

The Lions now take nine weeks off before beginning the spring season, a layoff that could hurt preparation for Big Ten play after the more intense preparation the team has taken over the fall.

The concern for Penn State will be to keep up training and conditioning without any matches over that time period.

"As a coach, I think the system is not conducive to bringing out the best for your teams come January," Baker said.

"It's starting to click. They're getting things, they're really starting to gel and come together with things we've been working on. Now we stop it and you kind of have to start over in January."