April 19, 2008
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue's women's tennis team lost 5-2 to No. 56 Iowa Saturday afternoon at the Schwartz Tennis Center. The Hawkeyes' victory placed them a game ahead of the Boilermakers in the conference standings heading into tomorrow's regular season finale.
Iowa stands at 12-8 on the season and is 3-6 against the Big Ten. Purdue dropped to 4-15 and 2-7 vs. conference opponents.
The Boilermakers got off to a good start, winning convincingly at No. 2 doubles and coming from behind to win at No. 1.
Cigdem Duru and Joanna Craven played on of their best matches of the season in quickly dispatching Kayla Berry and Milica Veselinovic, 8-2. Duru and Craven have won three-straight matches at No. 2 and improved their Big Ten record to 6-3.
At No. 1, Brooke Beier and Stephanie Wooten erased deficits of 3-0 and 5-4 in their successful comeback over Jacqueline Lee and Alexis Dorr.
The Boilermakers broke Iowa's serve with the match tied at 5-5 to take their first lead of the day and held on to win 8-6. Beier and Wooten are 8-6 on the season, 5-4 in conference play and 7-6 at the No. 1 position.
In singles, Purdue received a 6-3, 6-4 win from junior Alejandra Boeker at No. 6 over Berry for its second and final point of the afternoon. Anna Dzeva came close to beating Kelcie Klockenga at No. 5, but fell 7-5 in the decisive third set.
Dzeva claimed the second set, 6-1, after dropping the first 4-6.
"It was real nice to see Allie win and Anna play a real good match, both of them were in it all the way through," said head coach Laura Glitz. "I think we started well in singles and competed hard, but just could not come through during those crucial points. We have to raise our competitive level up one more step."
Purdue plays host to Minnesota in its last home match of the regular season Sunday at 11 a.m. Admission is free and pizza courtesy of the women's tennis coaches will be served between singles and doubles.
Seniors Beier and Duru will be honored in pre-match senior day festivities.