April 2, 2010
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; - The Penn State women's tennis team (4-11, 0-3 Big Ten) dropped a conference match to No. 26 Iowa today at home (12-2, 2-2 Big Ten), 6-1. Senior Lauren McCarthy (Danbury, Conn.) grabbed a point for Penn State with a come-from-behind tiebreaker singles win.
In doubles play, Iowa's Alexis Dorr and Lynn Poggensee-Wei topped senior Sarah Lotto (Toronto, Ontario) and sophomore Michaela Stracar (Jericho, N.Y.) on the No. 3 court, 8-1. Following on the No. 1 court, the nation's No. 23 doubles duo of Sonja Molnar and Merel Beelen jumped out to an early 3-0 lead over freshman Amy Simidian (Carlstadt, N.J.) and sophomore Maria Prishlyak (Kiev, Ukraine), but the Nittany Lion duo responded to trail by only two games at 5-3. Molnar and Beelen eventually pulled away to an 8-4 win, clinching the doubles point for the Hawkeyes.
Junior Denisa Zobeideh (Weston, Fla.) and McCarthy started out with a 2-0 lead over Ally Majercik and Kelcie Klockenga in second doubles, followed by a Hawkeye rally to tie the score at 2-2. After two more ties at 3-3 and 5-5, Penn State stormed ahead to an 8-6 victory.
With Iowa leading 1-0, the match moved into singles. Beelen extended Iowa's advantage to 2-0 with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over freshman Sarah Henderson (Auckland, New Zealand) on the No. 3 court. Following in first singles, #74 Molnar defeated Simidian, 6-4, 6-2.
Zobeideh hung with Young during the first set of No. 4 singles, but the Hawkeye junior came away with a 7-5, 6-2 win to clinch the match victory for Iowa. Klockenge topped Lotto in similar fashion on the No. 5 court, winning 7-5, 6-4 and putting Iowa ahead 5-0.
In sixth singles, Stracar dropped her first set to Dorr, 6-3. Dorr took an early 5-2 advantage, followed by a Stacar push to tie the set at 5-5. Dorr eventually won the set, 7-5. In the final match of the day, McCarthy nabbed a come-from-behind win over Poggensee-Wei in second doubles, 4-6, 6-4, 10-7.
Penn State is at home again on Sunday as it hosts the Minnesota Golden Gophers at 11 a.m. 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.
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Doubles | | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| #15 Molnar/Beelen | 8-4 | #1 | Simidian/Prishlyak | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Majercik/Klockenga | #2 | 8-6 | Zobeideh/McCarthy | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Poggensee-Wei/Dorr | 8-1 | #3 | Lotto/Stracar | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Order of finish: 3, 1, 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Singles | | |||
| #74 Molnar | 6-4, 6-2 | #1 | Simidian | |
| Poggensee-Wei | #1 | 4-6, 6-4, 10-7 | McCarthy | |
| Beelen | 6-2, 6-1 | #3 | Henderson | |
| Young | 7-5, 6-2 | #4 | Zobeideh | |
| Klockenga | 7-5, 6-4 | #5 | Lotto | |
| Dorr | 6-3, 7-5 | #6 | Stracar | |
| Order of finish: | 3, 1, 4, 5, 6, 2 | |||