| Senior Sasha Abraham and the No. 8 Nittany Lions ended their season with a (4-0) loss to No. 1 Northwestern in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament in Minneapolis Friday. |
Minneapolis, Minn.; April 27, 2007 ?CThe No. 8 seed Penn State women??s tennis team (10-13, 3-7) came in to the Big Ten Championship with high levels of energy and determination, but it was not enough to stop the No. 1 seed Northwestern Wildcats Friday in the Big Ten quarterfinals. The Nittany Lions battled hard, but fell by a very deceiving 4-0 score to Northwestern.
The Nittany Lions seemed to put thoughts of their early-season 7-0 loss to the Wildcats behind them entering the doubles point. Northwestern was in the doubles point driver??s seat after an 8-5 win by Alexis Conill and Samantha Murray over sophomores Dorothy Dohanics (Pittsburgh, Pa.) and Leyla Morzan (Vancouver, British Columbia) in third pairs. The Wildcats went on to secure the doubles point with Lauren Lui and Keri Robison teaming up to defeat freshman Lauren McCarthy (Danbury, Conn.) and senior Andreea Niculescu (Montreal, Quebec) in a close 8-6 second doubles match. The final doubles match proved to be the most exciting of the group as 10th-ranked Alexis Prousis and Georgia Rose and senior Sasha Abraham (Hyderabad, India) and junior Jenny Shular (Peachtree City, Ga.) were tied at 7-7, but had the stopped once the doubles point was clinched.
Northwestern continued its hot streak with Suzie Matzenauer topping McCarthy in a pair 6-0 sets in sixth singles, while #124 Lauren Lui defeated Shular in third singles (6-3, 6-0). Finalizing the Wildcat win was Nazlie Ghazal, who had a 6-1, 6-3 win over Dohanics in the fifth slot. Also in singles, sophomore Lauren Holzberg (Easton, Conn.) had a close match with Keri Robison in the fourth spot, defeating Robison 6-4 in the first set, but falling 2-6 in the second before the match was stopped. Abraham was trailing Prousis in second singles (4-6, 1-5), while Niculescu was on the verge of beating #39 Murray in first singles when the match was stopped. Niculescu topped the nationally-ranked player 7-5 in the first set and was up 5-2 in the second set.
#1 Northwestern 4, #8 Penn State 0
Singles
1. Andreea Niculescu (PSU) led #39 Samantha Murray (NU), 7-5, 5-2 (DNF)
2. Alexis Prousis (NU) led Sasha Abraham (PSU), 6-4, 5-1 (DNF)
3. #124 Lauren Lui (NU) def. Jenny Shular (PSU), 6-3, 6-0
4. Keri Robison (NU) vs. Lauren Holzberg (PSU), 4-6, 6-2 (DNF)
5. Nazlie Ghazal (NU) def. Dorothy Dohanics (PSU), 6-1, 6-3
6. Suzie Matzenauer (NU) def. Lauren McCarthy (PSU), 6-0, 6-0
Order of finish: 6, 3, 5
Doubles
1. #10 Prousis/Rose (NU) vs. Abraham/Shular (PSU), 7-7 (DNF)
2. Lui/Robison (NU) def. McCarthy/Niculescu (PSU), 8-6
3. Alexis Conill/Murray (NU) def. Dohanics/Leyla Morzan (PSU), 8-5
Order of finish: 3, 2