March 13, 2012
University Park, Pa. - Although the Penn State women's tennis team (7-3, 1-0) has not played a match in two weeks, the Nittany Lions fell one spot from No. 53 to No. 54 in the most recent ITA poll. The Nittany Lions are ranked for the fifth consecutive week. Petra Januskova (Ottawa, Canada) also continued her tenure in the polls, moving into the No. 55 slot in singles.
Prior to this season, Penn State had not broken into the poll since 2008, when they came in at No. 75 during the week of Feb. 22, 2008. The Nittany Lions have defeated three ranked opponents this season: then No. 57 Ohio State, No. 40 VCU and No. 65. Marshall.
Including the Nittany Lions, 11 of the 12 schools in the highly competitive Big Ten were also ranked. Penn State joins ten other Big Ten schools in the poll, including No. 13 Northwestern, No. 18 Michigan, No. 23 Nebraska, No. 34 Minnesota, No. 38 Purdue, No. 46 Illinois, No. 57 Indiana, No. 63 Ohio State, No. 73 Iowa and No. 75 Wisconsin. In total, 14 of Penn State's 22 opponents this season were ranked in this week's poll.
In addition to Penn State's team success, Januskova has been dominant in No. 1 singles play this season. The junior has compiled an undefeated 10-0 record this spring. In addition to beating two ranked opponents (then No. 14 Diana Nakic of No. 6 Baylor and No. 111 Kim Berghaus of UMBC), she has only lost one set the entire year. During the week of Jan. 10, Januskova was named Big Ten Athlete of the Week, becoming just the third Nittany Lion in program history to earn that honor.
The Nittany Lions are coming off a two-week lull in match play and will resume action tomorrow when they host Temple at 4:30 p.m. Penn State has been stellar at home this season, compiling a 6-1 record, and have won seven of their last eight total matches.
After tomorrow's match, Penn State will continue its home stand and wrap up non-conference play when it hosts Eastern Michigan on Saturday, March 17 at noon. After that, the Nittany Lions will only face conference opponents, as Indiana will travel to Happy Valley on Friday, March 23 at 4 p.m. and Purdue visits Sunday, March 25 at 11:30 a.m.
All of the Nittany Lion's home matches can be followed through the link for live stats at http://www.gopsusports.com/livestats/c-tennis/xlive.htm. Make sure to "like" the Penn State Women's Tennis page on Facebook and follow @PSUWomensTennis on Twitter!