Netwomen smash hapless West Virginia

For the second year in a row, the No. 7 Lady Lion tennis team handily defeated rival No. 13 West Virginia.

The last time Penn State and West Virginia met, the Lady Lions came away with a 5-4 victory. On Saturday, Penn State secured another win -- this time dominating 7-2.

The No. 7 Penn State women's tennis team (7-5 overall, 0-4 Big Ten) hosted regional rival and No. 13 West Virginia and won a hard-fought match at the Penn State Tennis Center. It was the doubles combinations that sealed the Lady Lion victory, with all three doubles teams winning.

"This time we really broke away here dominating the doubles," Penn State coach Sue Whiteside said. "Even if we don't have the best doubles combinations, we proved we can still win doubles matches."

The solid play of the No. 1 and 2 doubles teams pleased Whiteside. The No. 1 team of Olga Novikova and Alison Barnett was down, 4-1, until it realized it was not going to let its opponents dictate the match. The pair stepped up its level of play and swiftly changed the momentum to pull out an 8-5 win.

At No. 3 doubles, Rita Bailie and Kelley Margolis jumped to a 4-1 lead and won, 8-4.

Bailie also won her singles match -- her first ever at Penn State -- by attacking the ball more and being aggressive. She knew in order to win she had to do that.

"Rita stepped in and got the job done in singles and doubles," Whiteside said. "That's a big credit to her."

In singles action, No. 1 Novikova played her usual superb tennis and beat West Virginia's Christina Walker in two sets. Walker only managed to win four games.

Freshman Pilar Montgomery also managed to pull off a singles win despite her admitted hyper attitude.

"My opponent played very strong at first," Montgomery said, "but I changed it up on her, changed the pace, and she obviously couldn't handle it."

Penn State's two losses came at No. 4 and 5 singles. Margolis, although losing her close singles match, came back to win her doubles match. Whiteside saw this turn around as positive for the team.

On April 4 the team visits an excellent Minnesota team for a Friday night match. Then it is off to Iowa for an early Sunday match.

"It's going to be a tough trip. We really need to be ready for that and get our games together," Whiteside said. "We're going to try to use the time until then wisely."