April 13, 2012
MADISON, Wis. - In its first road game since March 25th, the No. 34 Purdue women's tennis team was sharp at Wisconsin. The Boilermakers were victorious, 5-2.
Purdue (13-4, 5-3 Big Ten) set the tone early with impressive play in doubles. Gisella Pere and Imogen Golder were dominant at No. 3 and came away with a win, 8-3, over Angela Chupa and Sarah Loebel. Mara Schmidt and Jennifer Rabot clinched the point with a win at No. 1. The duo knocked off Alaina Trgovich and Nicky Stacar, 8-4. Daniela Vidal and Lynda Xepoleas completed the sweep with an 8-7 (4) win at No. 2 over Nova Patel and Hannah Berner.
The Boilermakers carried the momentum into singles. Rabot quickly made the score 2-0 with a 6-0, 6-0 win at the top spot over Trgovich. Golder then won at No. 5, 6-3, 6-2, over Patel to bring Purdue within a point of the win.
Pere clinched the win soon after with a straight-sets win at No. 6. The junior topped Caroline Bauer, 6-4, 6-1. Xepoleas made the score 5-0 with a resilient three set win at No. 2. The freshman came back after dropping the first set to knock of Berner, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (4).
Wisconsin (10-10, 1-7) finally got on the board with a win at No. 3. Stracar took the first set from Schmidt, 6-4, but the Boilermaker sophomore found her game in the second set, winning 6-1. Since the team match had already been clinched, the two went to a tiebreak to decide the match. There, Stracar won, 12-10. In the final match, Loebel knocked off Vidal in three sets, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3.
Purdue improves to 12-28 against Wisconsin and has now won eight in a row in the series. Purdue currently sits in fifth place in the conference just a half game behind Illinois. The Fighting Illini are 5-2 in the conference heading into the weekend.
Purdue will be back in action on Sunday at No. 31 Minnesota. The match is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. ET. A full recap will be available at PurdueSports.com following the match.