Feb. 18, 2011
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; February 18, 2011 -- - The Nittany Lions are coming off two tough losses to ranked opponents against the No. 30 Ohio State Buckeyes 6-1, and No. 67 William & Mary Tribe, 4-3, last weekend.
Sophomore Amy Simidian (Carlstadt, N.J.) earned the singles point for the Nittany Lions against the Buckeyes as she defeated the No. 125 ranked Kelsey Haviland, 6-4, 1-6, 6-4. Sophomore Petra Januskova (Ottawa, Canada) has won four of her last five matches, and is currently ranked No. 89 in the latest ITA poll. Freshman Carmen Sandor (Toronto, Canada) has started her freshman campaign strong, winning four of her opening five matches as a Nittany Lion.
Also competing for the Nittany Lions this weekend will be sophomore Sarah Henderson (Bloomington, Ind.), junior Fernanda Perrotta (Buenos Aires, Argentina) and senior Denisa Zobeideh (Weston, Fla.). Henderson and Zobeideh and 2-2 in doubles together this year, with back-to-back wins over Bucknell and California (Pa.). Perrotta has played all matches with Januskova, and has tallied a 4-2 record, including a victory over William & Mary's Hope Johnson and Anik Cepeda, 9-7.
Penn State will look to get back on track as the face the Iowa State Cyclones in a regular season match for the first time in school history.
The teams met in the fall, at the WMU Super Challenge, where teams competed in a round robin tournament. Juniors Maria Prishlyak (Kiev, Ukraine) and Kristen Roth (Ardmore, Pa.) defeated Iowa State's Emma Waites and Reka Keleman, 8-6. Prishlyak and Simidian also competed in doubles against the Cyclones, defeating Keleman and Nikki Reber, 8-2.
The Cyclones are led by head coach Pablo Montana, who is in his fourth season coaching Iowa State. In his first season, Montana led the Cyclones to a 10-13 record and its first Big 12 Tournament victory in seven seasons. Montana coached senior Erin Karonis to the All-Big 12 first team, only the second Iowa State player to be named to the first team.
Penn State will continue their home stand to host Virginia Commonwealth University on Fri., Feb. 25 at 5 p.m. The Nittany Lions will stay in Happy Valley to face Princeton on Sun., Feb. 27 at noon, before its Big Ten opener against the Illinois Illini on Fri., Mar. 4 at 6 p.m.
For Live Stats throughout the match, click
--NITTANY LIONS--