UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; April 23, 2017ââ'¬" The Penn State women's tennis team fell to Indiana 6-1 in the final match of the 2016-17 season. The Nittany Lions finish the season with an overall record of 6-15 and 3-8 in the Big Ten Conference. They will not advance to post-season play.
"Today's result was not what we wanted. Credit to Indiana for coming through in some of the important times in the match," said head coach Chris Cagle. "We did a good job of fighting back and got things interesting in the singles but did not quite get it done. We will miss the seniors that made great contributions to our program and others will need to step up next year to fill their void. This group of seniors have led to many program first so they have made an impact on our program for sure."
In singles, Samantha Smith (PSU) won in straight sets against Pauline Jahren (IND) 6-2, 6-1. Senior Jacqueline Zuhse (PSU) dropped her first set 0-6 to Indiana opponent Caitlin Bernard. Zuhse won the tiebreaker against Bernard in the second set 7-6(7-5), but fell in the third set 4-6. Katia Blik (PSU) took her second set to a tiebreaker after falling to Madison Appel (IND) 2-6 in the first set. Blik was unable to force a third set and fell 7-6(7-3) in the tiebreaker.
The Blue and White battled hard in doubles, but dropped the extra doubles point to Indiana.
The seniors were honored in between the doubles and singles matches. Thank you to all the fans for the support this season.
Keep up with the Penn State women's tennis team at GoPSUsports.com. For continued updates throughout the year, make sure to `like' our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/pennstatewten and follow our twitter @pennstateWTEN.
Doubles Results
1) Appel/Schmider (IND) def. McCluskey/Dunn (PSU) 7-5
2) Gutierrez/Whalen (IND) def. Zuhse/Hanley (PSU) 6-4
3) Blik/Smith vs. Bernard/Jahren (IND) 5-5 Unfinished
Singles Results:
1) Appel (IND) def. Blik (PSU) 6-2, 7-6(7-3)
2) Gutierrez def. McCluskey 7-5, 7-5
3) Bernard def. Zuhse 0-6, 7-6(7-5), 4-6
4) Whalen def. Dunn 6-4, 6-3
5) Smith def. Jahren 6-2, 6-1
6) Schmider def. Hanley 6-0, 6-4
Order of finish 5,1,6,4,2,3