Oct. 6, 2012
Williamsburg, Va. - The Penn State women's tennis dominated their competition on day two of the Tribe Invitational in Williamsburg, Va. winning eight of their 10 matches.
In singles play Sarah Henderson, Carmen Sandor, Devan McCluskey and Jacqueline Zuhse all won their matches. McCluskey and Henderson both move on to the finals with their singles wins while Sandor and Zuhse move on to the back draw finals. Henderson knocked out James Madison's Megan Douglass, 6-2, 6-2, advancing to the finals while surpassing her singles win total from last fall. Henderson will face Victoria Khanevskaya of Kansas in the finals of the Marion Gengler Flight.
McCluskey heads to her first collegiate tennis final after defeating Sylvia Li of Harvard, 6-1, 7-5. After handling Li in the first set she brought home the win, earning a close 7-5 victory in the second set. McCluskey is set to play Harvard's Amanda Lin in the finals on Sunday.
Sandor defeated Marshall's Dana Oppinger in the consolation match of the Megan Moulton-Levy Flight winning, 6-2, 6-1. Sandor face Amy He of Harvard on Saturday in the consolation final looking to bring home her second back draw crown of the fall. Jacqueline Zuhse also won her singles match topping Daria Yakauleva. Zuhse heads to the final of her flight after Yakauleva was forced to retire because of injury. Zuhse will face Srinidhi Raghavan of Penn tomorrow in the back draw final.
Katherine Whiteaway was knocked out in her singles match against Harvard's Natalie Blosser losing 0-6, 6-3, 7-6(5). After dominating the first set she dropped the second and lost in heartbreaking fashion in the final set. Looking for her first singles win of the fall, Whiteaway heads to the third-place match of the back draw where she'll face Ellie Ball of Marshall.
The Nittany Lions were also victorious in several doubles matches on the second day of the Tribe Invitational. McCluskey and Whiteaway won the Karen Van Der Merwe consolation draw after defeating the duos from Old Dominion and Kansas. The freshman duo topped Olguin and Vukovic 8-5 in the back draw semifinal and knocked off Paulina Los and Maria Belen Ludueña of Kansas 8-6 to take home the back draw crown.
Sandor and Zuhse were 1-1 in their doubles matches on the day. They defeated Alex Ion and Emma Whitfield of Penn in the seventh-place match, 8-2, after losing to Taylor Pinchoff and Michelle Nguyen of James Madison, 8-4. An additional match was scheduled Saturday allowing Henderson to team with Victoria Khanevskaya of Kansas. The pair easily defeated their opponents, Norfolk State's team of Rebecca Graff and Kia Batiste, 8-0.
The final round of singles matches begins tomorrow at 9 a.m.