| Andreea Niculescu captured her first singles win of the spring when she downed Florida State's Alina Mihailescu, 6-4, 7-5 on Friday. Niculescu and the Lions open the spring at home when they face Army on Thursday at 4 p.m. |
Evanston, Ill. January 23, 2006 - Penn State concluded its final day of the Northwestern Mock Duals on Jan. 22, 2006, after competing against Northwestern University, University of New Mexico and Florida State University at a mock duals match hosted by Northwestern. Penn State collectively earned seven singles wins and four doubles wins. Sasha Abraham (Hyderabad, India) led the way as she defeated 45th-ranked Iva Gersic on Saturday.
Head coach Buffy Baker complimented her team's performance. "We had a great weekend overall," Baker said. "My goal as a coach was to figure out the doubles line-ups. Unfortunately Jenny Shular was sick, but it gave me the opportunity to try a lot of combinations. Our team played composed and with a lot of discipline for it being so early in the season, especially against very good players."
Andreea Niculescu (Montreal, Quebec) led the attack against Florida State in singles play Friday by defeating Alina Mihailescu 6-4, 7-5. Sasha Abraham picked up a win against FSU's Suzanna Mansour 6-3, 6-0. Freshman Lauren Holzberg (Easton, Conn.) also grabbed a win, beating Anna Rynarzewska of Florida State, 6-4, 6-3.
In other singles action on Friday, freshman Leyla Morzan (Vancouver, B.C.) put up a fight against FSU's Whitney Eber, but lost 7-5, 3-6, 6-4. Junior Katelyn BeVard (Mclean, Va.) was also defeated in a match-up against Tapiwa Marobela 6-4, 6-1.
The Lions also earned three wins versus New Mexico on Friday. Abraham set the pace and picked up the first win, defeating 45th-ranked Iva Gersic 1-6, 7-6, 6-3. Despite BeVard's loss to Maja Kovacek 6-3, 6-2 and Holzberg's loss to Ola Abou-Zekry 6-1, 6-1, Niculescu followed with a strong win versus Mackenzie White 7-5, 6-1. Morzan fell to Lucy Scott 7-5, 7-5, but junior Kristine Harcelerode (Lancaster, Pa.) finished Friday's singles play with an exciting win against Elisa Bonner 6-1, 2-6, 6-3.
In doubles play on Saturday, BeVard and freshman Dorothy Dohanics (Pittsburgh, Pa.) defeated FSU's Mansour and Rynarzewksa 9-8, 10-8. Holzberg teamed up with Niculescu to pick up a win against FSU's Marobela and Mihailescu 9-8, 7-1.
Penn State faced Northwestern in continuing doubles action on Saturday. Abraham and partner Holzberg were defeated by NU's Christelle Grier and Alexis Prousis 8-4 at the No. 1 spot. BeVard and sophomore Jenny Shular (Peachtree City, Ga.) followed with a loss to Wildcats' Feriel Esseghir and Georgia Rose, 8-2. Team Morzan and Niculescu stepped it up and topped Alexis Conill and Nazlie Ghazal in an exciting 9-7 victory.
The Nittany Lions played tough but only came out with one win in singles action versus Northwestern. Holzberg played well en route to a 7-5,7-6 victory against Conhill at No. 4 singles. Abraham put up a fight but did not come out successful at the No. 1 spot vs. Prousis 6-3, 6-2. Nicolescu followed at the No. 2 spot with a defeat by Grier 6-2, 6-2. BeVard also fell to her Wildcat opponent, Rose, in a 6-0, 6-0 loss. Morzan finished up Penn State's singles play with a tough loss to Esseghir 6-2, 6-2.
Finishing out Saturday's singles play, Dohanics fell in a tight singles match-up against New Mexico's Mackenzie White 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.
The Lions opened up Sunday, the final day of the Northwestern Mock Duals, with doubles action versus New Mexico. Although Maja Kovacek and Iva Gersic of UNM defeated Abraham and Niculescu 8-2, No. 2 doubles team Holzberg and BeVard followed with an impressive victory against Scott and Nora Quintal 8-2. Morzan and Dohanics kept it close in the No. 3 spot, but fell to Abou-Zerky and Jennifer Ryba 8-4.
Check out the Penn State women's tennis team for their first home meet of the year on Jan. 26 at 4 p.m.