Sept. 20, 2015 UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.-Today in Midland, Texas and Kansas City, Mo the Penn State women's tennis team completed their first tournaments of the season. Due to the rain on Sunday, the five team members, Devan McCluskey (Phoenix, Ariz.), Katherine Whiteaway (Sawbridgeworth, England), Jacqueline Zuhse (Boca Raton, Fla.), Kim Surin (Montreal, Canada), and Emily Rivers (Washington, DC) were unable to compete the final day of The Racquet Club of Midland Invitational.
In Missouri, the seven other Nittany Lion team members completed their last day at the Mizzou Invitational. Penn State took on Nebraska today in singles matches. Ekaterina Blik (Moscow, Russia) matched up against Maggy Lehimcke (4-6, 6-0, 6-3), Daria Sapogova (Belarus, Minsk) played Lisa Andersson (6-4,0-6,1-6), Taylor Shukow (Boca Raton, Fla) was victorious over Vasanti Shinde (4-6,6-4,7-6(8)). Kelly Mengel (Pittsburgh, Pa.) had a close match against Katerina Matysova but fell in the third set tiebreaker (7-5, 3-6, 7-6(9). Liyin Xu (Chengdu, China) played Mackenna Maddox-Herr (2-6,3-6), and Hannah Kratky (Greenwich, Conn.) had the last singles match of the day against Mary Hanna (0-6,0-6). Hannah Kratky also had the team's only extra singles match of the day as she fell to Sydney Harlow of Nebraska.
The morning of play in Missouri started with Penn State matching up against Mizzou. Daria Sapogova/Samantha Tutelman lost #1 doubles 2-6, Ekaterina Blik/Taylor Shukow lost at #2 doubles 4-6, and Kelly Mengel/Liyin Xu lost at #3 doubles 2-6. Six Mizzou Invitational titles went out to single match players, one of which was awarded to Penn State team member Taylor Shukow who went undefeated in singles throughout the weekend.
"We saw some bright spots this weekend and some areas that we will work on in practice this week to prepare for our upcoming tournament at Virginia Tech. The match practice from this weekend was very valuable and I am excited to get back on the court this week with our team to continue to get better!" said Coach Cagle.
Keep up with Penn State women's tennis as they continue their 2015-16 season at the Hokie Invitational September, 25th, stay updated at GoPSUSports.com. Check out the Penn State women's tennis team on social media by "liking" them on Facebook and following them on Twitter @PennStateWTEN
