PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - September 29, 2001 - While the rest of the team saw some success at the Maryland Invitational, four members of the Penn State women¡¯s tennis team could not get on track Friday in first day action at the elite 5th Annual Cissie Leary Invitational, hosted by the University of Pennsylvania. The three-day tournament attracts the best players from 13 of the top tennis programs in the eastern United States, including seven of the ITA¡¯s top 100 ranked players.

In singles action, Penn State sophomore Kristin Nowicki (Greensburg, Pa.) lost a close first set 6-4, and could not come back to beat Casey Cohen of Richmond, who prevailed in straight sets. In the same bracket, senior Rebecca Ho (Toronto, Ontario), ranked 84th in the nation by the ITA and seeded third in her bracket, lost a very tight three set battle with Julia Sotiriu of Old Dominion. After dropping the first set 4-6, Ho came back to even the match with a 6-3 set win of her own. Sotiriu proved to be too much to handle though, as she closed out the match 6-1.

In the other singles bracket, the Lady Lions found more of the same luck. Penn State junior Judy Wang (Eagan, Minn.) suffered a tough loss in her opening match versus Erika Takeuchi of Cornell. Veteran senior Janelle Perez (Burlingame, Calif.), seeded seventh in the bracket, jumped out of the gates to take the first set 6-3 over Margaret Purcell of Yale. Perez narrowly lost the second set 5-7 and could not pull out the victory, dropping the final set 1-6.

The two experienced seniors, Ho and Perez, teamed up in doubles action, but they were unable to turn things around and defeat Yale in the first round. Wang and Nowicki had more trouble of their own, losing a tough first round match to a solid team from Princeton.

The Fifth Annual Cissie Leary Invitational will continue through Sunday.