April 15, 2011
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; April 15, 2011 - The Penn State women's tennis team, (6-12, 1-5) will play their first outdoor match of the season as they host the Minnesota Golden Gophers on Friday at 5 p.m. and the Wisconsin Badgers on Sunday at 11 a.m. at the Sarni Tennis Center. The matches are the final home matches of the season for the Nittany Lions, admission is free and open to the public.
The Nittany Lions are coming off a road trip in Michigan as they split their matches with a win over No. 70 Michigan State and a loss to No. 7 Michigan.
Sophomore Petra Januskova (Ottawa, Canada) leads the Nittany Lions with 11 singles victories, including four over ranked opponents. Fellow sophomore Amy Simidian (Carlstadt, N.J.) helped the Nittany Lions rally from a 3-0 deficit against the Michigan State Spartans for her eighth singles victory of the year. Senior Denisa Zobeideh (Weston, Fla.) has made tremendous strides in her final season, posting nine singles victories and 10 doubles victories.
The Nittany Lions are loaded with young talent as freshmen Carmen Sandor (Toronto, Canda) and Marie-Frederique Bedard (Montreal, Canada) have earned significant victories for Penn State. Also likely to compete this weekend will be sophomore Sarah Henderson (Bloomington, Ind.), junior Fernanda Perrotta (Buenos Aires, Argentina) and junior Maria Prishlyak, (Kiev, Ukraine) who earned the only singles point against No. 7 Michigan.
The Minnesota Golden Gophers are led by Freshman Natallia Pintusava, ranked No. 84 in the latest ITA poll. Head coach Tyler Thomson is in his tenth season leading the Gophers and led Minnesota to their best start in 10 years during the 2007-08 season. Penn State is 5-16 all-time against the Golden Gophers, with their last victory coming in the spring of 2006. The teams first met in 1992.
For Wisconsin, freshman Jenny Hois, junior Alaina Trgovic, and freshman Nicky Stracar lead the Badgers, who were ranked for a majority of the season at No. 66 as late as Mar. 6. Wisconsin is led by head coach Brian Fleishman, in his fourth season at the helm. Last season, Fleishman helped the Badgers earn three ranked victories. The Nittany Lions are 3-18 all-time against the Badgers, with their last victory coming in the spring of 2008. The teams first met in the spring of 1980.
Penn State and Wisconsin met at the WMU Superchallenge in the fall. Bedard lost in a tough match to Aleksandra Markovic, 6-3, 6-1 and Prishlyak fell to Jenny Hois in a long three sets, 4-6, 6-3, 10-8. Earning victories over the Badgers were sophomores Januskova and Simidian, who defeated Stracar and Trgovich, respectively. Januskova took the singles and doubles crown with partner Fernanda Perrotta at the Superchallenge.
The Nittany Lions will hit the road for their final matches before the Big Ten tournament as they travel to Indiana to take on the Purdue Boilermakers on Sat., Apr. 23 at noon followed by the Indiana Hoosiers at 11 a.m. on Sun., Apr. 24. Follow the Nittany Lions live all weekend at Gopsusports.com
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