Feb. 15, 2014
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Despite taking an early lead, winning the doubles point for the first time since the season's opening weekend, the No. 57 Nittany Lions (3-5, 0-0 Big Ten) were upset by Marshall (4-2, 0-0 C-USA) at home, 4-3.
Dasha Sapogova (Minsk, Belarus) and Marie-Frederique Bedard (Montreal, Canada) cruised to a quick 8-3 victory in No. 1 doubles knocking off Dana Oppinger and Derya Turhan to put the Nittany Lions a doubles win away from taking the early lead.
In a back-and-forth No. 2 doubles match, Carmen Sandor (Toronto, Canada) and Samantha Tutelman (New York, N.Y.), in her collegiate debut, came up short falling to Karli Timko and Anna Pomyatinskaya, 9-7.
With the doubles point on the line and the No. 3 doubles point locked at four games each, Katia Blik (Moscow, Russia) and Katherine Whiteaway (Sawbridgeworth, England) went on a three-game run, only needing one more game to clinch the first point of the match. Kai Broomfield and Rachael Morales of Marshall stormed back to tie the match at seven before the teams split the next to games and went into a tiebreaker. Blik and Whiteaway controlled play in the tiebreaker winning 7-1 and giving the Nittany Lions their first doubles point and lead since their match with Navy on January 19.
Marshall bounced back tying the match at one when Turhan bested Sandor 6-0, 6-0 at No. 2 singles. Oppinger gave the Thundering Herd their first lead of the match shortly after with a 6-4, 6-1 win at No. 1.
Sapogova continued her early-season success securing her seventh win in eight tries on the season at the No. 3 position. She knocked off Broomfield 6-2, 6-4 to even the match at two points apiece.
Marshall took the next two matches clinching the victory with wins at No. 4 and 5 to go up 4-2 in the match. At the fourth spot, Pomyatinskaya pulled off the comeback after dropping the first set to win 4-6, 6-4, 6-1. After winning the first three game in her first set, Taylor Shukow (Boca Raton, Fla.) was unable to hold off the push from Timko who clinched the victory for the Herd winning 6-3, 6-1.
Whiteaway closed out the match for the Nittany Lions getting her second victory of the day with a strong 6-4, 6-0 win against Rachael Morales at No. 6 singles. The win moves Whiteaway back to .500 on the season in singles play.
Penn and Marshall will face off Saturday at 2 p.m. at the Penn State Indoor Tennis Center and the Nittany Lions will look to rebound when they take on the Quakers at 10 a.m. Sunday.
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