April 11, 2013
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -
The No. 38 Nittany Lions women's tennis team (13-4, 3-4) returns home to host the No. 16 Northwestern Wildcats (11-8, 5-2) Saturday and No. 59 Illinois Fighting Illini (10-9, 3-4) Sunday at Sarni Tennis Center. Both matches are scheduled to begin at 10 a.m.
LAST TIME OUT
The Nittany Lions won one of two matches last weekend on their road trip. On Friday the Minnesota Golden Gophers upset the Nittany Lions, 4-3. The Gophers won the doubles point as well as the the top three singles matches to clinch the victory. Penn State bounced back Sunday steamrolling Wisconsin, 7-0. The win came two days after the Badgers upset No. 52 Ohio State. The Nittany Lions won all eight completed matches and were leading in the one unfinished doubles match in Madison.
IN THE RANKINGS
The Nittany Lions dropped five spots to No. 38 in the rankings this week. Senior Petra Januskova (Ottawa, Canada) enters this week's singles poll at No. 67, following a 2-2 record since the last set of rankings were released. During this span Januskova was 1-1 against ranked opponents in singles play. Januskova and Chelsea Utting (Peachtree City, Georgia) moved up 26 spots this week to No. 49 in the doubles poll. The jump comes after going 2-1 the past two weeks with a victory over the nation's No. 34 duo of Ruth Seaborne and Morven McCulloch of Iowa. This is the second-highest ranking the duo has captured, with their highest being No. 42 in this year's preseason poll.
BIG TEN ROUNDUP
The Big Ten feature eight teams in the ITA National Rankings this week with Michigan leading the way at No. 7. Nebraska follows them at the No. 12 spot after knocking off Purdue and Indiana over the weekend. Northwestern comes in at No. 16 and Purdue rounds out the conference teams in the top 25 coming in at No. 23. Indiana remains closely head of the Nitttany Lions entering the week at No. 34 with Illinois and Ohio State rounding out the Big Ten at No. 59 and No. 62 respectively. Michigan's duo of Brooke Bolender and Emina Bektas sit at No. 2 in the doubles poll while Cornhusker Mary Weatherholt leads the conference in singles coming in at No. 14.
SCOUTING NORTHWESTERN
The Wildcats are coming off of a 4-3 loss at home to Michigan. All eight losses suffered by the Wildcats have come at the hands of ranked opponents all of which were ranked in the top 35 including No. 1 North Carolina and No. 3 Duke. Northwestern has had success against quality opponents winning seven matches against ranked opponents already this season. The Wildcats are led by Kate Turvy who is ranked No. 55 in the nation in this week's singles poll. Northwestern's top duo of Linda Abu Mushrefova and Nida Hamilton is ranked No. 9 in the nation's doubles poll this week.
NORTHWESTERN-PENN STATE SERIES HISTORY
Penn State is still looking for its first win against the Wildcats in the all-time series. The Wildcats are a perfect 24-0 against the Nittany Lions. Last year the Nittany Lions were topped 6-1 in Evanston, Ill.
SCOUTING ILLINOIS
The Fighting Illini enter the weekend having won four of their last five matches. The Illini have not played on the road in almost a month having played their last five matches at home. Eight of their nine losses have come to ranked opponents and seven of the nine have come on the road. Illinois has two victories this season against ranked opponents, on the road against Georgia State and at home against Oklahoma. The Illini are led by Melissa Kopinski who is ranked No. 117 in the nation in singles. She joins her teammate Rachael White in the doubles poll coming in at No. 27 this week.
ILLINOIS-PENN STATE SERIES HISTORY
Illinois has the edge in the series winning 20 of the 22 matches all-time. The Nittany Lions were bested by the Illini last season 5-2 in Champaign, Ill. The Nittany Lions last victory in the series came in 2007 when they knocked off Illinois on their home court 4-3.
UP NEXT
Following their matches at home this weekend the Nittany Lions will head to Ann Arbor, Michigan for their final away match of the regular season on Friday April, 19 at 3 p.m. before returning home to close out their regular season against Michigan State on Sunday April, 21 at 11 a.m. at Sarni Tennis Center.