Jan. 2, 2012
Manoa, Hawaii - The Penn State women's tennis team (0-0, 0-0) opens its spring season this weekend, with dual matches against both Hawaii and Baylor. The Nittany Lions will face the Rainbow Warriors on Thursday and the Baylor Bears on Friday. Both matches are at 11 a.m. EST.
Penn State is coming off a strong fall season, in which it tallied a combined 46-37 singles record and a 20-19 doubles record. The Nittany Lions captured two singles championships and a doubles second place finish in their tournament play.
Petra Januskova (Ottawa, Canada) was stellar in the fall campaign, in which she finished with a 20-5 record and her first Big Ten Athlete of the Week award. The junior took home the singles crown at the Cissie Leary Invitational and was the singles champion at the Western Michigan Super Challenge for the second year in a row. Januskova partnered with Nina Sertic(Zagrab, Croatia) for a second place finish in the doubles portion of the Cissie Leary Invitational.
Thursday's dual match will be the first of the regular season for the Nittany Lions. Last year, Penn State posted a 7-16 record, including victories over Big Ten foes Minnesota and Michigan State.
After their trip to Hawaii, the Nittany Lions will return to Happy Valley for four straight home matches at the Sarni Tennis Center. Penn State will host a doubleheader versus UMBC and Lehigh on Sat., Jan. 21 starting at 11 a.m. The Nittany Lions will face rival Pittsburgh at 1 p.m. on Sun., Jan. 29 and will open Big Ten play Tues., Feb. 7 against Ohio State at 3 p.m.