March 28, 2012
University Park, Pa. - The No. 46 Penn State women's tennis team (10-4, 2-1) will hit the road for the first time in over a month and a half and for only the fourth time all season when it travels to the Midwest for two matches this weekend. The Nittany Lions face the Iowa Hawkeyes (6-8, 0-3) on Friday at 5 p.m. and play the No. 18 Nebraska Cornhuskers (16-2, 2-1) on Sunday at 11 a.m.
Penn State is coming off a convincing victory over then No. 27 Purdue. In a back and forth match, the Nittany Lions came out victorious, 4-3. With doubles victories from the duos of Petra Januskova (Ottawa, Canada) / Chelsea Utting (Peachtree City, Ga.) and Sarah Henderson (Bloomington, Ind.) / Fernanda Perrotta(Buenos Aires, Argentina), Penn State captured the doubles point and tallied a 1-0 lead heading into singles play.
No. 61 Januskova bounced back from her only loss of the season on Friday to beat Jennifer Rabot in straight sets, 6-0, 6-0. As the No. 1 singles player, Januskova is 13-1 this season. Utting also picked up a win for the Nittany Lions, besting Lynda Xepoleas, 6-1, 2-6, 6-2. The match came down to the very last bout and Marie-Frederique Bedard(Montreal, Canada) did not disappoint. The sophomore defeated Anna Dushkina, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.
Katie Doughertyenters her third season as Head Coach of the Hawkeyes. Prior to taking the position at Iowa, Dougherty was an assistant coach at Penn State from 2004-07. The Hawkeyes are an undefeated, 5-0, at home this season and are led by No. 115 Sonja Molnar in the No. 1 singles position. Molnar is 10-4 this season, including two victories over ranked opponents. The Nittany Lions are 3-21 all-time against the Hawkeyes and last beat Iowa in the spring of 2009. Fans can follow all of the action as the match progresses at http://live.iowatennis.com/.
Nebraska is led by Head Coach Scott Jacobson, who enters his 21st season at the helm of the Cornhuskers as the winningest and longest-serving coach in NU history. No. 40 Mary Weatherholt leads Nebraska in the No. 1 single slot, compiling a 9-4 record this spring. The duo of Madeleine Geibert and Stefanie Weinstein are an undefeated 10-0 this spring in doubles action, totaling a 3-0 record over ranked opponents and garnering a No. 40 ranking themselves. Penn State has only faced NU one time in program history, losing to the Cornhuskers in the spring of 2001. Live stats for this match can be found at http://www.huskers.com/liveStats/liveStats.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=100.
The Nittany Lions return home next weekend when they host No. 32 Minnesota on Fri., April 6 at 5 p.m. and Wisconsin on Sun., April 8 at 11 a.m. After that, Penn State will head to Illinois to take on No. 15 Northwestern on Sat., April 14 at 11 a.m. and No. 21 Illinois on Sun., April 15, also at 11 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!