April 27, 2011
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; April 27, 2011 - The Penn State women's tennis team (6-15, 2-8) will face the Indiana Hoosiers for their second time in five days in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament on Thursday at 1 p.m. The Nittany Lions are the 10 seed in the tournament and are paired against the No. 7 Hoosiers.
Penn State and Indiana met on Apr. 24 with the Hoosiers defeating the Nittany Lions 6-1. Penn State played tight the whole match despite the score, as five of six singles matches went to three sets. The winner of the match will face the No. 2 Northwestern Wildcats on Fri. at 2 p.m.
In their last matchup, freshman Carmen Sandor (Toronto, Canada) earned the lone singles victory for the Nittany Lions as she defeated Kayla Fujimoto in fourth singles 7-5, 3-6, 6-2. Sophomore Petra Januskova (Ottawa, Canada) leads the team with 14 singles victories and is ranked No. 2 in the Atlantic region, according to the ITA. Ranked in doubles for most of the season with Januskova is junior Fernanda Perrotta (Buenos Aires, Argentina) who earned eight doubles victories on the season. Senior Denisa Zobeideh (Weston, Fla.) showed leadership throughout the season as she finished third on the team in singles victories with nine and tied for first in doubles with 12. Sophomore Amy Simidian (Carlstadt, N.J.) played at the No. 2 position for most of the year and earned 10 singles victories and eight doubles wins for the Nittany Lions.
Young players stepped up for the Nittany Lions as freshmen Sandor and Marie-Frederique Bedard (Montreal, Canada) earned significant playing time for the Nittany Lions. Sandor earned nine singles victories and tied for a team-high with 12 doubles wins.
Indiana is led by sophomore No. 57 Leslie Hureau, with 14 singles victories on the season. Also ranked in singles is junior Evgeniya Vertesheva at No. 114. In doubles, the Hoosiers have the duo of Leslie Hureau and Myriam Sopel ranked in the top 50 at No. 56. The Hoosiers are led by head coach Lin Loring, with more wins in Division I women's tennis history than any other coach with 761. Lorin has been at the helm of the Indiana Hoosiers for the past 34 seasons. He has led the Hoosiers to 16 Big Ten championships and earned a 104-match win-streak against Big Ten opponents from 1978-1985. Loring became the first coach to ever surpass 700 wins on Jan. 20, 2008.
Additional information on the tournament can be found HERE
--NITTANY LIONS--