Oct. 8, 2011
Houston, Texas - The Penn State women's tennis team continued play in the Rice Invitational today. The Nittany Lions sent six individual competitors and three doubles pairings to the tournament.
In the Blue Singles tournament Nina Sertic (Zagrab, Croatia) lost to Caroline Thornton of Tulane, 6-2, 7-6 (5), in the semifinals. The senior will face LSU's Ariel Morton tomorrow.
In a close quarterfinal match Chelsea Utting (Peachtree City, Ga.) was bested by Caroline Maqnusson of Tulane, 3-6, 7-6 (3), 10-6. The sophomore lost another close match to Gia McKnight of DePaul, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5), in the semifinals. She will play Katie Gater of Rice tomorrow.
In another close match, Marie Bedard (Montreal, Canada) lost to LSU's Ariel Morton, 6-7 (4), 6-0, 14-12, in the quarterfinals.
In the Gray Singles tournament Fernanda Perrotta (Buenos Aires, Argentina) was bested by Rebecca Bodine of LSU, 6-0, 6-3 in the semifinals. The senior will face her teammate, Prishlyak, on Sunday.
Sarah Henderson (Bloomington, Ind.) beat LSU's Paige Bahnsen, 6-2, 6-0, in the semifinals and will play another LSU player tomorrow, Hayley Everett.
Finishing up second day play, Maria Prishlyak (Kiev, Ukraine) beat Paige Bahnsen of LSU, 6-2, 6-0, in the in the quarterfinals but lost to Cali Gustafson of DePaul, 6-2, 6-2, in the semifinals.
In doubles action, Perrotta and Bedard were bested by Juliana Gajic and Annat Rabinovich of Texas, 8-6. Henderson and Prishlyak lost to Tulane's Caroline Maqnusson and Emily Dvorak, 8-4. Utting and Sertic beat Hayley Everett and Paige Bahnsen of LSU, 8-2 in the quarterfinals, but lost to Lindsay Dvorak and Caroline Thornton of Tulane, 8-6 in the semifinals.
The Nittany Lions will finish play at the Rice Invitational tomorrow.