March 23, 2011
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; March 23, 2011 -- - The Penn State women's tennis team, (4-8, 0-2) hosts the Temple Owls on Friday at 5 p.m. and the Iowa Hawkeyes on Sunday at 11 a.m. at the Indoor Tennis Center. Admission is free and open to the public.
The Nittany Lions are coming off of their fourth victory of the season as they defeated the Winthrop Eagles on Sat., Mar. 19, 4-3. Penn State also faced off against the No. 41 Marshall Fighting Herd last weekend but fell, 4-3. The loss marked the fourth one point loss to a ranked opponent this season.
Sophomore Petra Januskova (Ottawa, Canada) earned her team leading eighth and ninth singles victories this weekend as she improved her overall record to 9-3 on the season. Januskova also won two singles matches with senior Denisa Zobeideh (Weston, Fla.) who has six singles victories on the season. Sophomore Amy Simidian (Carlstadt, N.J.) is second in singles victories with seven and is coming off of an impressive victory over Michaela Kissell, No. 1 player in the Atlantic region.
The new pairing of freshman Carmen Sandor (Toronto, Canada) and Fernanda Perrotta (Buenos Aires, Argentina) has worked well for the Lions as the duo won two of their first three matches together. Freshman Marie-Frederique Bedard (Montreal, Canada) also won matches this weekend and will look to continue her solid play at home.
The Nittany Lions are 13-0 all time against the Temple Owls with their last meeting coming in the spring of 2010. Elyse Steiner and Theresa Stangl lead the Owls in the No. 1 and No. 2 spots, respectively. Steiner has won her previous four matches. Temple is led by head coach Steve Mauro in his sixth season at the helm. In his first season, Mauro led the Owls to a 17-8 record and a third-place finish in the Atlantic 10 Tournament. The season marked a 14-win turnaround and the highest finish in the Atlantic 10 for the Owls since 2000.
The Hawkeyes are led by junior Sonja Molnar, ranked No. 114 in the latest ITA poll. Molnar is also ranked in doubles with senior Jessica Young at No. 40. Iowa is led by head coach Katie Dougherty, in her second season coaching the Hawkeyes. Young has worked in the Big Ten for six seasons including a brief stint at Penn State. In her first season, she led Iowa as high as No. 18 in the ITA national ranking, the highest in program history.
Penn State will continue its Big Ten stretch as it hosts Northwestern on Sat., Apr., 2 at 11 a.m. The Nittany Lions will then travel to East Lansing to take on the Michigan State Spartans on Sat., Apr., 9 at 11 a.m.
--NITTANY LIONS--