April 24, 2014
ROSEMONT, Ill. - Freshman Dasha Sapogova (Minsk, Belarus) and Senior Marie-Frederique Bedard (Montreal, Canada) were honored at the Big Ten Conference Banquet Thursday night. Sapogova was named to the All-Big Ten second team while Bedard was named a Sportsmanship Award honoree.
Sapogova becomes the second Nittany Lion is school history to be named to the All-Conference second team and the first to do so as a freshman. Teammate Chelsea Utting (Peachtree City, Ga.) earned the recognition as a sophomore in 2012.
Sapogova led the Nittany Lions this season tallying 15 wins in singles despite not coming to Penn State until January. Her six doubles victories were a team-high for the spring season.
Sapogova made her mark playing at the top spot in the lineup where she earned six of her 15 wins including a win against Nebraska's Maggy Lehmicke that broke a 3-3 deadlock and clinched the Nittany Lions first-ever win against the Huskers as well as their first road victory of the season.
The freshman also knocked off the previously undefeated Lauren Chypyha of Wisconsin who was 13-0 entering the match. The win helped the Nittany Lions knock off the Badgers to earn their first conference win of the season.
Bedard was named a Sportsmanship Award honoree for the second time in her four-year career. The award recognizes student-athletes who have distinguished themselves through sportsmanship and ethical behavior and who are in good academic standing and have demonstrated good citizenship outside of the sports-competition setting.
During her four years at Penn State Bedard has helped lay the foundation for a young Penn State team moving forward. Bedard finishes her playing career as a Nittany Lion with 42 singles victories and 31 doubles victories putting her in the top 25 in both categories all-time in program history.
Bedard tallied nine doubles wins during her senior campaign this year to lead the Nittany Lions. She added ten more in singles playing at the third, fourth and fifth positions.