April 21, 2013
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - No. 43 Penn State (14-7, 4-7) took an early lead and was able to hang on to close out their regular season with a 4-3 victory over Michigan State (11-15, 1-10). The Nittany Lions honored their two graduating seniors, Petra Januskova (Ottawa, Canada) and Sarah Henderson (Bloomington, Indiana), prior to the match.
Penn State earned the first point of the match winning the doubles competition. Marie-Frederique Bedard and Jacqueline Zuhse struck first, defeating Emily Meyers and Julianne Gruber in the No. 3 match. No. 30 Januskova and Chelsea Utting took down Mariana Bohrer and Catherine Parenteau 8-4 at No. 1 to clinch the doubles point for the Nittany Lions. The win was the 62nd doubles win of Januskova's career tying Olga Novikova for most all-time in Penn State history. The No. 2 match went unfinished with Carmen Sandor and Devan McCluskey leading 5-4.
An unexpected injury to Chelsea Utting caused a shakeup in the lineup with everyone moving up a spot and Sarah Henderson playing at the No. 6 spot. Zuhse put the Nittany Lions up 2-0 when she bested Olga Chemova in the No. 2 match winning, 6-3, 6-3. It was Zuhse's first career match at No. 2.
Carmen Sandor was the next to finish winning 6-2, 6-3 against Nicole Herzog increasing Penn State's lead to 3-0. Michigan State pulled within two when Meyers won the final two sets to come from behind and knock off Bedard, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4. After losing in her first set against Bohrer at No.1, Januskova won the following two to get the victory and clinch the win for Penn State. Her 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 win increased the score to 4-1 in favor of the Nittany Lions.
Michigan State won the final two matches both in the super tiebreaker. McCluskey went up winning her first set against Parenteau and led in the second before the Spartan came back and won in the breaker, 4-6, 6-4, 1-0 (10-7). Henderson dropped her first set but battled back to force the super breaker. She wasn't able to hold on dropping the match at No. 6, 6-2, 4-6, 1-0 (10-4). The wins pulled the Spartans closer but Penn State's early lead was enough to hold on, winning 4-3.
With the regular season over, the Nittany Lions will head to Bloomington, Ind. for the Big Ten Tournament which begins Thursday. The first round matches will begin at either 10 a.m. or 2 p.m.
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