Feb. 19, 2011
UNIVERSITY PARK, PA.; February 19, 2011 - The Penn State women's tennis team (3-4, 0-1) fought back from a 3-1 deficit to even the score at 3-3 before falling to the Iowa State Cyclones, 4-3, on Saturday. Sophomore Petra Januskova (Ottawa, Canada) earned her fifth win in six matches and senior Denisa Zobeideh (Weston, Fla.) outlasted Simona Cacciuttolo in three sets to keep the Nittany Lions alive.
Junior Kristen Roth (Ardmore, Pa.) and Zobeideh earned the lone doubles victory for the Nittany Lions, as they defeated Jenna Langhorst and Liza Wischer, 8-5, to give Penn State the edge in the race for the pairs point. Iowa State tied the doubles point as freshman Carmen Sandor (Toronto, Canada) and sophomore Amy Simidian (Carlstadt. N.J) fell to Erin Karonis and Simona Cacciuttolo, 8-3. In the deciding doubles match, Tessa Lang and Maria Macedo defeated Januskova and junior Fernanda Perrotta (Buenos Aires, Argentina), 8-3, in first doubles as Iowa State took the 1-0 lead.
In first singles, Januskova tied the match at 1-1 as she defeated Karonis in straight sets, 6-1, 6-3. Januskova is currently ranked No. 89 in the ITA poll. Sandor played in second singles for the first time this season, but dropped a 6-3, 6-2 decision to Macedo to give the Cyclones a 2-1 lead.
In third singles, Simidian played two tough sets but eventually fell to Lang, 6-4, 6-4, for a 3-1 Iowa State lead. Perrotta kept the Nittany Lions alive, by quickly defeating Langhorst, 6-4, 6-2, in fifth singles. Zobeideh and Cacciuttolo went to three sets as their match lasted over two hours and included a long second set tiebreak. Zobeideh outlasted Cacciuttolo by winning the third set and taking the fourth singles match, 6-2, 6-7 (7), 6-2. The win by Zobeideh evened the score at 3-3. The deciding point came down to the match between Maria Prishlyak (Kiev, Ukraine) and Liza Wischer. Wischer took the first set as all eyes were on the sixth singles match up. Prishlyak fought hard to fend off a match point, but eventually fell to Wischer, 6-3, 6-1. Roth played an exhibition singles match against Chartier and collected the 8-5 win.
Penn State will be back at the Indoor Tennis Center in State College as they face Virginia Commonwealth University on Fri., Feb. 25, at 5 p.m before hosting Princeton at noon on Sun., Feb. 27.
--NITTANY LIONS--
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