Hawkeyes and Tigers Meet in Columbia

Hawkeyes and Tigers Meet in Columbia

Feb. 23, 2011

Complete Release in PDF Format

THIS WEEK
The University of Iowa women’s tennis team travels to Colombia, Mo. to face Missouri (4-1 overall) on Sunday. The No. 65 Hawkeyes (2-5 overall) will play the Tigers at the Green Tennis Center starting at 1 p.m. (CST).

THE COMPETITION
Missouri enters the weekend with a 4-1 overall record that includes a 2-0 mark at home. The Tigers lone loss of the season came at No. 52 Purdue. Iowa and Missouri both competed at the UNI Invite and the ITA Central Regional during the fall. At the UNI Invite, Iowa went 2-4 against Missouri in singles. One of the victories came courtesy of junior Sonja Molnar in the championship match of the Platinum Flight singles bracket. Molnar topped Mallory Weber, 6-2, 6-1. Molnar also teamed with senior Lynne Poggensee-Wei to beat two Missouri tandems in doubles en route to winning the Platinum Flight doubles bracket. The two schools met only once at the ITA Central Regional. Mallory Weber and Katilyn Ritchie won an 8-4 doubles decision over seniors Alexis Dorr and Jessica Young.

LAST TIME OUT
Iowa went 0-2 over a Feb. 19-20 weekend road trip. The Hawkeyes lost a heartbreaking 4-3 decision Saturday against Marquette that came down to the final match. The Hawkeyes then lost in Chicago to No. 34 DePaul, 5-2. Iowa fell to 1-4 overall (1-3 road, 0-1 neutral) while playing away from the Hawkeye Tennis and Recreation Complex. The Hawkeyes are 1-1 at the HTRC.

BEATING THE BEST
The doubles duo of junior Sonja Molnar and senior Jessica Young posted an 8-3 win over the 55th ranked tandem of Katarina Milinkovic and Gia McKnight of DePaul Feb. 20. Molnar and Young have played at the No. 1 position in all seven of Iowa’s dual matches and are 2-0 against ranked opponents this season. The pair also beat Illinois’ No. 15 duo Rachael White and Allison Falkin 9-7 and were tied 6-6 with No. 66 Caroline Lilley and Sasha Krupina of Georgia Tech when play was suspended. Molnar and Young are 5-1 overall this season and are ranked No. 32 by the ITA. Molnar is ranked No. 81 in singles.

“Missouri is a tough team. We’ve been getting better every week and are looking forward to more good competition to prove ourselves.”
Head Coach Katie Dougherty

ON A ROLL
Senior Lynne Poggensee-Wei is currently on a three match singles winning streak. The Lake Villa, Ill. native has won all three decisions in straight sets, defeating Kansas State’s Nina Certic 6-1, 6-3, Gillian Hush of Marquette 6-4, 6-2 and DePaul’s Selma Salkovic 6-1, 6-2. Poggensee-Wei is 4-3 overall on the season while playing at No. 3 and No. 4 positions.

YOUTH MOVEMENT
Freshmen Christina Harazin and Jessica Cohen are among the dual match team leaders in wins. Harazin has recorded four wins and is tied with Molnar and Poggensee-Wei for the team lead. Cohen is currently in second with three victories. Both individuals have also been fixtures in the Hawkeyes doubles line-up and have gone 1-3 while playing together.