Feb. 24, 2011
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; February 24, 2011 - The Penn State women's tennis team (3-4, 0-1) will face off against two ranked teams this weekend as they host the No. 23 Virginia Commonwealth Rams (11-1) and the No. 38 Princeton Tigers (4-4) at the Indoor Tennis Center. The Nittany Lions face VCU at 5 p.m. Friday and the Tigers Sunday at noon. The Rams and Tigers will square off on Saturday afternoon. Admission to all matches is free.
Senior Denisa Zobeideh (Weston, Fla.) earned two victories against the Iowa State Cyclones, defeating Simona Cacciuttolo in a tough three-set match, and topping Jenna Langhorst and Marie Chartier with partner Kristen Roth (Ardmore, Pa.). Sophomore Petra Januskova (Ottawa, Canada) earned her fifth victory in six matches as she defeated Erin Karonis, 6-3, 6-1. Januskova is currently ranked No. 89 in singles according to the ITA poll and the No. 2 player in the Atlantic region.
Freshman Carmen Sandor (Toronto, Canada) has won four of her six opening matches as a Nittany Lion and played in the No. 2 spot against Iowa State for the first time in her career. Also earning a singles victory over the Cyclones was junior Fernanda Perrotta (Buenos Aires, Argentina).
Freshman Marie-Frederique Bedard (Kiev, Ukraine) and sophomores Amy Simidian (Carlstadt, N.J.) and Maria Prishlyak mark some of the young talent for the Nittany Lions. In the past three matches, Penn State has played four of the six singles matches with underclassmen.
The matchup with Virginia Commonwealth University marks the first meeting between the teams since 1997. Penn State is 2-4 all-time against VCU. The Rams are 11-1 on the year and enter the match ranked No. 23 in the latest ITA poll. They are led by head coach Paul Kostin, who has earned 800 wins in Division I tennis, making him only the fifth coach to ever reach the plateau. He has led the Rams to eight NCAA Tournament appearances and three conference titles.
Penn State is 4-16 all-time against Princeton, with their first matchup coming in the spring of 1975. The Tigers are ranked No. 38 in the latest ITA poll. The team is led by head coach Megan Bradley, who in her first season at Princeton led the Tigers to a 20-win season and an Ivy League title.
The Nittany Lions will host their Big Ten home opener on Fri., March 4 at 6 p.m. as they take on the Illinois Illini. Penn State will then hit the road as it travels to New Orleans to take on Tulane on Thu., March 10. at 10 a.m.
--NITTANY LIONS--
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