April 1, 2011
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; April 1, 2011 - The Penn State women's tennis team, (5-10, 0-3) hosts their toughest home test of the season as the No. 18 Northwestern Wildcats travel to State College. Penn State is coming off a split of home matches against Temple and Iowa. Admission is free and open to the public.
Sophomore Amy Simidian (Carlstadt, N.J.) and junior Fernanda Perrotta (Buenos Aires, Argentina) earned singles victories over the Iowa Hawkeyes in Big Ten play on Friday. Sophomore Petra Januskova (Ottawa, Canada) fell in a tough match to Iowa's Sonja Molnar who defeated Januskova in the ITA All-Americans.
Januskova leads the Nittany Lions with 10 singles victories and is currently ranked No. 2 in the Atlantic Region according to the ITA. Senior Denisa Zobeideh (Weston, Fla.) is second on the team with eight singles victories and has also earned eight doubles victories. Freshmen Carmen Sandor (Toronto, Canada) and Marie-Frederique Bedard (Montreal, Canada) have provided young talent for the Nittany Lions. Sandor has earned seven singles victories on the season.
The Nittany Lions' schedule includes 10 opponents currently ranked in the ITA Top 75, four of which are Big Ten rivals, including Northwestern. Penn State is in the midst of their toughest stretch facing three ranked Big Ten opponents includung Northwestern, Michigan State, and Michigan. The Nittany Lions have played well against ranked opponents this season, with four losses coming by a combined four points.
Northwestern is currently on a four-match winning streak and are currently ranked No. 18 in the latest ITA poll. They recently defeated the No. 3 North Carolina Tar Heels for their biggest win of the season. Four Wildcats are ranked in singles with Maria Mosolova leading the team at No. 16. Also in the rankings are Brittany Wowchuk at No. 50, Belinda Niu at No. 74, and Kate Turvey at No. 92. Linda Abu Masherova and Nida Hamilton are the lone ranked doubles pairing at No. 7. The Wildcats are led by Claire Pollard, in her 13th season at the helm. During her tenure, the Wildcats won 11 straight Big Ten championships from 1999-2009, the second-longest streak by any women's program in Big Ten history. Pollard has coached the Wildcats to a No. 1 ranking three times and has had back-to-back No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Championship.
Penn State will continue its Big Ten stretch as it travels to East Lansing to take on the Michigan State Spartans at 11 a.m. on Apr. 9. The Nittany Lions will then face the Michigan Wolverines on Sun., Apr. 10 at 11 a.m.
--NITTANY LIONS--