Feb. 20, 2015
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.- The Penn State women's tennis team took No. 43 Columbia to the wire as the Nittany Lions comeback came up just a little short in Friday night's 4-3 loss. Penn State dropped the first two singles matches before Kim Surin (Montreal, Canada) ignited the Penn State Indoor Center with her tough three set victory over Rima Asatrian. After dropping the second set 6-1, Surin owned the third set 6-2 to notch her second singles victory of the spring season.
"I thought today was our grittiest match of the year. I thought we competed the best that we have so far this year and if we continue that in our upcoming matches, I know we are only going to get better as the season goes along," said head coach Chris Cagle. "I am really proud of the team up and down the lineup and I know we are going to be ready to play VCU."
With Penn State down in the match 3-1, Sam Tutelman (New York, New York) and Taylor Shukow (Boca Raton, Fla.) took the court to try and complete the comeback. Both took their opponents to three sets before Columbia clinched the match with their fourth singles victory. Tutelman forced a third set against Alexandra Solovyev after cruising 6-2 in the second. Solovyev won the third set 6-4 that gave the Lions their fourth win of the season. Shukow took Vivian Cheng to a third set tiebreaker before earning a 9-7 tiebreak win. The win was Shukow's tenth singles victory of the year.
Penn State captured the doubles point 2-1 over Columbia. Devan McCluskey (Phoenix, Ariz.) and Surin clinched the victory for the Nittany Lions as the duo won in a tiebreaker 8-7. The first doubles duo saw a change as Katia Blik stepped in for Victoria Kisialeva and with partner Dasha Sapogova, defeated Tina Jiang and Crystal Leung 8-5.
"We have a lot of respect for Columbia. Today was a super competitive college tennis match and we didn't come out with the win today, but it's going to help us big time as we finish up our non-conference schedule and head into Big Ten play."
The Nittany Lions finish off their short two-match home stand Sunday when the VCU Rams pay a visit to Happy Valley. The match is set for 11:00 a.m. Stay up to date with everything Penn State tennis on Facebook at Penn State Women's Tennis and on Twitter @pennstateWTEN.
Singles Results: (Order of Finish: 1, 2, 4, 3, 5, 6)
1) Tina Jiang (CU) def. Blik 6-2, 6-1
2) Kanika Vaidya (CU) def. Sapogova 7-6, 6-1
3) Kim Surin def. Rima Asatrian (CU) 6-4, 1-6, 6-2
4) Crystal Leung (CU) def. McCluskey 6-3, 6-2
5) Alexandra Solovyev (CU) def. Tutelman 7-5, 2-6, 6-4
6) Shukow def. Vivian Cheng (CU) 6-1, 1-6, 6-5(9-7)
Doubles Results: (Order of Finish: 1, 3, 2)
1) Blik/Sapogova def. Tina Jiang/ Crystal Leung (CU) 8-5
2) Surin/McCluskey def. Kanika Vaidya/Rima Asatrian (CU) 8-7(5)
3) Adi Milstein/Alexandra Solovyev (CU) def. Zuhse/Whiteaway 8-4