May 1, 2015
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.- The Penn State women's tennis team finished the season ranked as the 47th team in the nation, according to the ITA rankings that were released Friday. The Nittany Lions finished the season with a 13-11 record, including going 9-4 in the Big Ten. The nine wins were the most for the program going back to the 1999-2000 season.
"This year has been a year of growth for our program. We have a number of players that transitioned back into the lineup and competed at a very high level," said head coach Chris Cagle. "I think the measure of what this team is capable of was shown in our last 14 matches, going 11-3 and finishing fourth in the Big Ten. Coach Fenwick and I are excited to work with this group again and build on this year and get even better next year."
The blue and white tallied six victories over ranked Big Ten opponents, including wins over then ranked No. 37 Illinois, No. 47 Maryland, No. 43 Indiana, No. 28 Purdue, No. 50 Michigan State and No. 47 Indiana at the Big Ten quarterfinal. Penn State had one of the toughest schedules in the nation, as only three teams on the Nittany Lions' schedule stayed unranked throughout the season.
"Our players took the experiences from the beginning of the season and learned from them, getting tougher and better as the season went on," said Cagle. "We were definitely playing some of our best tennis as we wrapped up the Big Ten season and going into the conference championships."
Dasha Sapogova (Minsk, Belarus) led the team with 17 singles victories during the year. Sapogova was 10-3 from the fourth singles position. Kim Surin (Montreal, Canada) was right behind as Surin recorded 16 singles victories and ended the year on a 7-2 tear. Surin, from the third singles position, went 11-4. Both Sapogova and Surin were both 9-3 in conference play to lead the Nittany Lions.
In doubles, Devan McCluskey and Surin paced the blue and white with 15 wins on the year. The duo went 6-6 in conference play. Katherine Whiteaway (Sawbridgeworth, England) and Jacqueline Zuhse (Boca Raton, Fla.) ended the year strong as the pair finished with eight victories.
"We return a lot of experience and have a lot of players that have had match experience from this year so I think that is going to help us since they are used to our system and our structure," said Cagle. "They know that next year, one of our themes is that we just have to continue to improve and if we do that, I think the wins will take care of themselves."
The Big Ten announced their season awards as Katia Blik (Moscow, Russia) was named the Sportsmanship Award recipient for Penn State.
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