UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.-- Olivia Rohrbacher (Sandusky, Ohio) clinched the match win with a come-from-behind victory on court No. 3 to give the Penn State women's tennis team a 5-2 win over Minnesota. The Nittany Lions improved to 7-0 at home with the victory.
Penn State improves to 11-6 on the season and 3-3 in the Big Ten. The Nittany Lions moved the Gophers to 10-8 on the season and 3-3 in the Big Ten.
"I feel like we competed under pressure really well tonight," said head coach Chris Cagle. "Win or lose, [assistant coach] Alexandra [Anghelescu] and I were going to be proud of the girls for the way they really put everything they could into the match. This is what college tennis is, all these matches are close and it's going to come down to who plays better under pressure. We stepped up and played really well where it counted tonight."
DOUBLES
Penn State took the doubles point courtesy of a clinch from their newly ranked doubles duo of No. 79 Gabby O'Gorman (Gunnedah, N.S. Wales, Australia) and Rohrbacher. O'Gorman and Rohrbacher defeated Cammy Frei and Caitlyn Merzbacher, 7-5, to claim the point.
Chelsea Sawyer (Clemmons, N.C.) and Frederikke Svarre (Copenhagen, Denmark) grabbed the other win for the Nittany Lions over Bita Mancera and River Hart, 6-4.
Shannon Hanley (Kensington, Md.) and Samantha Smith (Cary, N.C.) had their match against Tina Kreinis and Tiffany Huber go unfinished, but were leading 5-4 when play ended.
SINGLES
O'Gorman grabbed her 12th win of the season against the Gophers. She easily handled Kreinis, 6-1, 6-1 to snag the first singles win of the day for the Nittany Lions.
Svarre needed a third set to put away Frei, but pulled out the win 6-1, 4-6, 6-4.
Rohrbacher dropped the first set in her match, but came back in convincing fashion to give the Nittany Lions the match win, defeating Mancera, 6-7, 7-5, 6-4.
Smith added on to the lead with a victory over Juliet Zhang, 6-3, 6-1.
UP NEXT
The Nittany Lions will host their second Big Ten match of the weekend when Wisconsin comes to town on Sunday, April 7 at 11 a.m. The match against Wisconsin is tentatively scheduled to be played outdoors at the Sarni Tennis Center.
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.
