University of Minnesota Athletics
Pintusava Named Big Ten Player of the Week
1/25/2011 12:00:00 AM | Tennis
Pintusava, who is ranked No. 51 by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA), played No. 1 singles in two dual matches for Minnesota last week. On Friday, she earned her first win of the spring season with a straight-set 6-3, 7-6 road upset of No. 27 Michaela Kissell of Marshall. Pintusava dropped a neutral site match on Saturday to Kentucky's Megan Broderick 3-6, 7-6 (4), 1-0 (10-6).
The Minsk, Belarus, native teamed up with fellow freshman Yuliana Umanets to win two doubles matches at the No. 2 position last week. It was the first time that Pintusava and Umanets, who joined the team earlier this month, had played doubles together. Still they had little trouble in beating Marshall's Catherine Kellner and Maria Voscekova 8-5 on Friday and Kentucky's Khristina Blajkevitch and CeCe Witten 8-4 on Saturday.
Pintusava, who is the second-highest ranked Big Ten player (Michigan's Denise Muresan is No. 9), was 11-5 in fall competition and advanced to the final of the USTA/ITA Central Region Championship where she lost a three-set thriller to No. 18 Anouk Tigu from Arkansas.
Pintusava is Minnesota's first Big Ten Women's Tennis Athlete of the Week since Ashley Schellhas won the honor on April 18, 2007.
Minnesota, plays at Northwestern (Feb. 5) and Marquette (Feb. 6) before competing in its first home match of the year on Friday, Feb. 11 against Oklahoma.
