March 20, 2008
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; - This weekend, the Penn State women's tennis team (5-6, 1-1) will face the Temple Owls and the St. John's Red Storm. Up first is Temple with action beginning Friday at 5 p.m. The Nittany Lions will face St. John's Sunday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. or after the conclusion of the men's tennis match.
The Nittany Lions have returned home from a two-game Spring Break trip where the team faced Oklahoma State and then No. 69 Wichita State. Penn State defeated the Oklahoma State Cowgirls 4-3 with all four points earned in singles action. Sophomore Lauren McCarthy (Danbury, Conn.) sealed the win for the Nittany Lions in what turned out to be a five hour marathon match. McCarthy defeated Maryna Tkachenko (7-6 (7-4), 5-7, 7-6 (7-4)). Penn State fell 5-2 to Wichita State the next day. Earning wins for Penn State were the two seniors, Katelyn BeVard (McLean, Va.) and Jenny Shular (Peachtree City, Ga.). BeVard defeated Anna Egorova (2-6, 6-2, 7-5) and Shular defeated Florentine Hanisch (6-3, 6-3).
Temple (11-2) has won 11 straight matches after defeating the Duquesne Dukes, 5-2, on March 17. The team's only losses came in the first two matches of the spring season to Princeton and Penn.
St. John's (3-7, 1-2) fell 6-1 to the Black Knights of Army on Tuesday, March 18. The Red Storm took a 1-0 lead after winning the doubles point but could not secure the match in singles play. Prior to Army, the Red Storm took down conference foe Seton Hall with a convincing 5-2 win.
"I am looking forward to seeing some improvement from last week," said head coach Dawna Prevette. "We have worked with each member of the team to identify personal improvements that can be made this weekend and I am excited to see those things on the court. Temple and St. John's have some talent and we need to be ready."
Following this weekend, the Nittany Lions will dive back into Big Ten play as they travel to Minnesota and Iowa. Minnesota is up first on Saturday, March 29 with action beginning at 11 a.m.
- Nittany Lions -