April 1, 2010
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State women's tennis team returns home after a two-week break from competition to host No. 26 Iowa on Friday at 5 p.m. and No. 56 Minnesota on Sunday at 11 a.m. The matches will be held outdoors at the Sarni Tennis Center off of Bigler Road, weather permitting.
The Nittany Lions have had two weeks off since playing at then-No. 32 Princeton on Saturday, March 20. The Tigers came away with a 7-0 victory. Prior to Princeton match, Penn State earned a win over Texas State and a loss to then-No. 33 SMU during its spring break trip to Texas. Against the Bobcats, freshmen Petra Januskova (Ottawa, Ontario) and Amy Simidian (Carlstadt, N.J.), sophomore Maria Prishlyak (Kiev, Ukraine) and senior Lauren McCarthy (Danbury, Conn.) all picked up Penn State singles wins. The Nittany Lions also completed a doubles sweep.
The Iowa Hawkeyes are currently 11-3 overall and 1-2 in Big Ten play. The Hawkeyes' losses have all come against ranked opponents: No. 6 Notre Dame, No. 56 Minnesota and No. 8 Michigan. Sophomore Sonja Molnar is currently ranked No. 55 in the ITA national singles rankings. Molnar and senior partner Merel Beelen are the nation's No. 23 doubles duo.
Friday's match against Iowa is USTA Campus Kids' Day. The promotion will feature competitions and prizes, including t-shirts, signed racquets and free pizza. All children in attendance will receive an autographed team poster. A ball throw competition will take place between doubles and singles play.
Led by ninth-year head coach Tyler Thompson, the Golden Gophers hold a 9-7 record on the year and are 2-1 in conference play. Junior Alessandra Ferrazzi and Tijana Koprivica split time at No. 1 singles, tallying 5-4 and 3-4 records, respectively. Ferrazzi and Koprivica are currently ranked No. 80 nationally in doubles.
Next weekend, the Nittany Lions travel to Michgan the following weekend to take on the Wolverines in Ann Arbor on Saturday, April 10 at noon and to East Lansing on Sunday, April 11 to face Michigan State at 10 a.m. Penn State is on the road again the following weekend at Indiana on Saturday, April 17 at 11 a.m., then at Illinois the following day at noon.