Princeton University Athletics
Men's Tennis Home, Women's Tennis to Visit Penn State This Weekend
February 24, 2011 | Men's Tennis, Women's Tennis
The 38th-ranked women's team (4-4) will get the weekend going with a noon match Saturday against No. 23 Virginia Commonwealth hosted by Penn State. VCU (11-1) will face Penn State Friday before taking on the Tigers. The Rams are winners of six straight since a Jan. 29 loss at Georgia, which has since moved to No. 10 in the ITA national rankings.
VCU will be the fourth top-25 opponent for Princeton this season after then-No. 14 Florida State, then-No. 16 Texas, and then-No. 20 Vanderbilt. After four losses from 1994-2001, Princeton defeated VCU for the first time 4-2 on the road in 2009.
Sunday's match against Penn State (3-4) will begin at noon. Princeton holds a 12-4 all-time advantage against Penn State and will look for its first three-match win streak against the Nittany Lions since 1980-82. The teams will be playing in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2006 and 2007 after Princeton's 7-0 win in Jadwin Gym a year ago.
Both opponents for the women's team boast an ITA-ranked singles player, including 117th-ranked Josefin Hjertquist for VCU and 89th-ranked Petra Januskova for Penn State.
The 70th-ranked men's team (5-2) will host their only match of the weekend against NJIT Sunday at 2 p.m. in Jadwin Gym. The Highlanders (0-2) will face Lafayette Friday before meeting the Tigers for the first time.
Both of Princeton's losses this season have come by 4-3 scores, first to DePaul on the road and then to No. 67 Binghamton on a neutral court in the ECAC Championship semifinal. The Tigers have a pair of wins over ranked teams this season, including then-No. 71 Penn State and then-No. 60 Northwestern.
Both Tiger teams will have additional tune-up matches before the Ivy League season begins at the end of March.