April 8, 2011
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; April 8, 2011 - The Penn State women's tennis team, (5-11, 0-4) travels to Michigan to face a pair of ranked opponents as they travel to Michigan State to take on the No. 70 Spartans on Saturday, Apr. 9, at 11 a.m. and the No. 10 Michigan Wolverines on Sunday, Apr. 10, at 11 a.m.
Penn State will be looking for its first Big Ten win coming off a tough loss to the very talented No. 16 Northwestern Wildcats. Senior Denisa Zobeideh (Weston, Fla.) and freshman Carmen Sandor (Toronto, Canada) earned a doubles victory against the Wildcats.
Sophomore Petra Januskova (Ottawa, Canada) leads the Nittany Lions with 10 singles victories and is currently ranked No. 2 in the Atlantic region according to the ITA. Zobeideh is second on the team with eight singles victories and has also earned eight doubles victories. Sandor and freshman Marie-Frederique Bedard (Montreal, Canada) have provided solid young play for the Nittany Lions. Sophomore Amy Simidian (Carlstadt, N.J.) has earned seven singles victories playing the majority of the season at the No. 2 position. Junior Fernanda Perrotta (Buenos Aires, Argentina) has helped the Nittany Lions in doubles, earning eight victories on the season.
No. 121 Amy Barton leads the Michigan State Spartans at the No. 1 spot with an impressive 11-2 record. Valentina Rusakova has also provided a spark for the Spartans with 12 singles victories on the season. Penn State will have to work hard to earn the doubles point against the Spartans as they have earned the edge in doubles 15 of their 16 matches this season. The Spartans are led by head coach Simon Jardim, in her third season at the helm.
The Wolverines are led by No. 7 Denise Mursean, two wins away from earning more singles victories than any player in Michigan history. The Wolverines have tallied a 33-2 record in Big Ten play this season and have won 20 consecutive conference matches. Michigan is also tough at home, earning a 38-2 record in Ann Arbor under fourth-year head coach Ronnie Bernstein. Michigan is led by a group of seniors including Mursean, Whitney Taney, Rika Tatsuno, and Kari Wig.
The Nittany Lions return to Happy Valley for their final home matches of the season as they host the Minnesota Golden Gophers on Fri., Apr. 15 at 5 p.m. and the Wisconsin Badgers at 11 a.m. on Sun., Apr. 17.
--NITTANY LIONS--