Jan. 25, 2011
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; January 25, 2011 - The Penn State women's tennis team (0-1, 0-0) continues its early season home stand as they take on the Pittsburgh Panthers at the Indoor Tennis Center Wednesday at 4 p.m.
The Nittany Lions come off a tough 5-2 loss to the Akron Zips at home on Saturday, Jan. 22. Sophomore Petra Januskova (Ottawa, Canada) defeated Akron's Zara Haruyntyan 6-4, 2-6. 6-0 in first singles. Also earning a singles point was junior Fernanda Perrotta (Ardmore, Pa.), who defeated Akron's Natalia Kuvakina, 6-1, 6-1 in fifth singles.
In second doubles, sophomores Sarah Henderson (Bloomington, Ind.) and Amy Simidian (Carlstadt, N.J.) bested Akron's Anya Baronayte and Jeramie Benjamin, 8-4.
The Nittany Lions are coming off a strong fall season, where they landed four players in the first ITA poll, including Januskova at No. 59 in singles. Also cracking the rankings were the doubles pairings of juniors Kristen Roth (Ardmore, Pa) and Maria Prishlyak (Kiev, Ukraine) as well as Januskova and Perrotta in a nine-way tie for No. 68.
Penn State went 41-35 in the fall season, including two championships at the WMU Super Challenge with Januskova taking home the singles crown and the pairing of Perrotta and Januskova winning doubles. Januskova also finished runner-up at the ITA Atlantic Regional, helping her land the No. 2 spot in the ITA Atlantic Region ranking.
Penn State is 14-0 all-time against the Panthers, with their last matchup coming in the 2000-01 season. Pittsburgh is led by head coach George Dieffenbach, who has spent 27 seasons with the Panthers.
The Nittany Lions remain home following their match with the Panthers with a doubleheader on Tues., Februrary 8 versus Bucknell and California (Pa.). Big Ten play begins when the Nittany Lions travel to Columbus to take on the Ohio State Buckeyes on Fri., Februrary 11 at 2 p.m.
--NITTANY LIONS--