Sept. 24, 2011
Philadelphia, Pa. - The Penn State women's tennis team started off its fall season strong in the opening round of competition in the Cissie Leary Invitational Friday. The Nittany Lions had four singles players and two doubles pairings advance to today and tomorrow's quarterfinal matches.
In singles action, junior Petra Januskova (Ottawa, Canada) was ranked second in the field of 64 and received a bye in opening round play. In the second round, Januskova easily beat Columbia's Ioana Alecsiu, 6-0, 6-0. Januskova will face teammate Nina Sertic(Zagrab, Croatia) in the quarterfinal round of 16 on Sunday. The senior Sertic bested Cornell's Amy Li in the first round, 6-1, 6-0 and Delaware's Sophie Sjoberg-Sundstrom in the second round, 6-4, 6-3.
Both Kristen Roth (Ardmore, Pa.) and Chelsea Utting(Peachtree City, Ga.) won their first two matches as well. Roth defeated Ayesnil Orhon of Drexel, 6-2, 6-2 and then bested Ama Osei of Temple in a close match, 6-2, 2-6, 10-5. Utting easily beat Olivia Heim of Delaware, 6-1, 6-1 and Adel Arshavskaya of Columbia, 6-1, 6-3. In today's quarterfinal match, Roth will play sixth-ranked Yana Mavrina of Temple and Utting will face seventh-ranked Bianca Sanon of Columbia.
Fernanda Perrotta (Buenos Aires, Argentina) and Marie Bedard (Montreal, Canada) both advanced to the second round but were bested in that round of competition and will continue play in the consolation bracket. Both Maria Prishlyak (Kiev, Ukraine) and Sarah Henderson(Bloomington, Ind.) lost in the first round but received byes in the consolation bracket and will continue play in that bracket today.
In doubles play, Januskova and Sertic were the number one ranked duo and received a bye in the first round. In the second round, the pair beat Cornell's Christine Ordway and Gabby Sullivan, 8-4. Also advancing to the quarterfinal round was the duo of Perrotta and Utting after defeating Jordan Batey and Paola Calderon of Temple, 8-2 in the first round and Columbia's Ioana Alesciu and Tiana Takenaga, 8-3 in the second round. Both the pairings of Roth/Prishlyak and Bedard/Henderson lost close matches in the first round of doubles action.
The Nittany Lions continue play in the Cissie Leary Invitational in Philadelphia today and tomorrow.