April 25, 2010
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; - In its final match of the regular season, the Penn State women's tennis team (4-18, 0-10 Big Ten) fell to conference rival Wisconsin (8-15, 3-7 Big Ten) today, 5-2. Penn State won on two of three doubles courts and freshman Amy Simidian (Carlstadt, N.J.) grabbed a victory in first singles.
The Nittany Lions will be the #11 seed in the Big Ten Tournament held at the University of Iowa and will face sixth-seeded Purdue at 1 p.m. (Eastern) on Thursday. The winner of the match will face #3 seed Illinois on Friday.
Wisconsin took an early advantage by winning the first doubles match. The Nittany Lions snuck then snuck past the Badgers with wins on the final two doubles courts to take a 1-0 lead. Following in singles play, Wisconsin won in the first four matches to clinch the match victory.
In doubles play, Katya Mirnova and Angela Chupa gave the Badgers an early edge by defeating senior Sarah Lotto (Toronto, Ontario) and Simidian in first doubles, 8-3. However, senior Lauren McCarthy (Danbury, Conn.) and junior Denisa Zobeideh (Weston, Fla.) jumped out to a 4-0 lead on the No. 2 court and never looked back on their way to a 8-2 victory over Alaina Trgovich and Hannah Berner.
With doubles action tied at 1-1, sophomores Maria Prishlyak (Kiev, Ukraine) and Michaela Stracar (Jericho, N.Y.) battled with Kathleen Saltarelli and Jessica Seyferth in third doubles. After a tie at 2-2, the Penn State duo jumped out to 5-2 lead. The Wisconsin duo fought back to tie the score at 7-7. Prishlyak and Stracar hung on for the 9-7 victory to clinch the doubles point for Penn State in dramatic fashion.
With Penn State leading 1-0, the match moved into singles play. Seyferth tied the match score at 1-1 as she took a 6-0, 6-2 victory over Lotto in the No. 5 slot. Following in third singles, Mirnova put Wisconsin up 2-1 with a 6-0, 6-1 victory over Prishlyak.
In fourth singles, Chupa topped Zobeideh in the first set, 6-0. After a ties at 5-5 and 6-6 in the second set, Seyferth held on for a 7-6 win.
Following in second singles, Berner took a 6-1 first set win over McCarthy. The score was tied at 3-3 and 5-5 in the second set, then Berner fought off a solid McCarthy effort for a 7-5 win, clinching the match victory for Wisconsin.
With Wisconsin ahead 4-1, Simidian cruised by Trgovich in straight sets on the No. 1 court, 6-2, 6-3. In the final match of the day, Stracar dropped the first set to Saltarelli, 6-3. Stracar led 4-2 in the second set, but Satarelli fought back to take a 6-4 win.
| ="BACKGROUND-image:url('http://grfx.cstv.com/schools/psu/graphics/auto/match-insider-250x500.jpg'); background-repeat:no-repeat;)"> |
| WISCONSIN 5 PENN STATE 2
|
| 5 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Doubles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chupa/Mirnova | 8-2 | #1 | Simidian/Lotto | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Trgovich/Berner | #2 | 8-2 | Zobeideh/McCarthy | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Saltarelli/Seyferth | #3 | 9-7 | Prishlyak/Stracar | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Order of finish: 1, 2, 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Singles | ||||
| Trgovich | #1 | 6-2, 6-3 | Simidian | |
| Berner | 6-1, 7-5 | #2 | McCarthy | |
| Mirnova | 6-0, 6-1 | #3 | Prishlyak | |
| Chupa | 6-0, 7-6 | #4 | Zobeideh | |
| Seyferth | 6-0, 6-2 | #5 | Lotto | |
| Saltarelli | 6-3, 6-4 | #6 | Stracar | |
| Order of finish: | 5, 3, 4, 2, 1, 6 | |||