Aug. 28, 2008
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Todd Doebler and the Penn State men's tennis squad announced their fall schedule today. The six-tournament schedule opens Sept. 12-14 with the PSU Fall Classic.
The Nittany Lions will bring in some solid competition to PSU Fall Classic, including Alabama, N.C. State, Pepperdine and Princeton. Last season, Pepperdine finished No. 12 in the ITA Tennis Poll and earned them a berth into the NCAA Tournament. Alabama will look for revenge this year after the Nittany Lions upset the 21st-ranked Crimson Tide, 4-3 last March. As for Princeton, Penn State tamed the Tigers to capture the ECAC Championship crown, 5-2 last fall. N.C. State will come to University Park after having a 12-14 record last season and finishing No. 53 in the ITA Poll.
Penn State will host an Alumni Weekend as part of the PSU Fall Classic. Any former Penn State men's tennis alumni interested in attending, please contact head coach Todd Doebler via email at tcd10@psu.edu.
Following the PSU Fall Classic, the Nittany Lions will head to Atlanta, Ga., Oct. 3-5 for the Georgia Tech Fall Tournament. The next weekend, Penn State will head to Tulsa, Okla., for the All American Championships, Oct. 6-8. The team will then head to the ITA Regionals, Oct. 16-21. The Big Ten Singles will take place Oct. 30- Nov. 3 followed by ITA Indoors, Nov. 6-9 to cap off the fall season.
Leading the way for Penn State will be seniors Brendan Lynch (North Potomac, Md.) and Adam Slagter (Austin, Texas). Last season, Lynch teamed up with Michael James in doubles action, where the pair ranked No.1 in the ITA Northeast Region and No. 33 in national doubles. In singles action, Lynch finished a combined 27-10. Slagter finished 14-11 last season in singles action and earned a No. 5 individual ranking in the ITA Northeast region. In addition, Doebler added two recruits in Chris Haysn (Lansdale, Pa.) and Jason Lee (Melbourne, Australia) to the Nittany Lion roster.
Last season, the Nittany Lions earned their second straight NCAA Tournament appearance. In addition, Penn State notched its first NCAA Tournament victory in the modern era over No. 27 Virginia Commonwealth, 4-0 in the first round. Penn State also earned a first-place ranking in the ITA Northeast region and a No. 39 ITA national ranking.