UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The Penn State women's tennis team (9-3, 1-0) continued its stay in this week's ITA Poll, released Tuesday (March 20). The Nittany Lions came in at No. 46. After winning two matches last weekend, Penn State improved eight spots from last weeks poll, when the Nittany Lions were ranked No. 54.
This marks the sixth week in a row Penn State has stayed in the Top 75 ranking. Prior to this season, Penn State had not broken into the poll since 2008, when they came in at No. 75 during the week of Feb. 22, 2008. The Nittany Lions have defeated three ranked opponents this season: then No. 57 Ohio State, No. 40 VCU and No. 65. Marshall. In previous weeks Penn State has held rankings of No. 59, No. 61, No. 46, No. 53 and No. 54, respectively.
Including the Nittany Lions, nine of the 12 schools in the highly competitive Big Ten were also ranked. Penn State joins eight other Big Ten schools in the poll, including No. 14 Northwestern, No. 20 Michigan, No. 25 Nebraska, No. 26 Minnesota, No. 27 Purdue, No. 50 Illinois, No. 57 Indiana, and No. 66 Ohio State. In total, 12 of Penn State's 22 opponents this season were ranked in this week's poll.
This weekend Penn State enters the conference potion of its schedule and will only face Big Ten opponents for the rest of the season. The Nittany Lions host Indiana on Friday, March 23 at 4 p.m. and Purdue on Sunday, March 25 at 11:30 a.m. After that, Penn State will hit the road for the first time in over a month and a half, when it travels to Iowa to take on the Hawkeyes on Friday, March 30 at 5 p.m.