Sept. 17, 2009
Flight "A" Singles Flight "B" Singles Flight "C" Singles
Flight "D" Singles Flight "E" Singles
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State men's tennis team will open the fall season at Princeton beginning on Friday, Sept. 18 for the Farnsworth/Princeton Fall Invitational. The tournament will carry through Sunday, Sept. 20. Penn State will face some solid competition, as Binghamton, Buffalo, Columbia, Cornell, Penn, Princeton, St. John's and Yale will all be participating.
"We are looking forward to playing our first tournament this weekend," said head coach Todd Doebler. "The guys have been working really hard so it will be interesting to see how we compete."
Doebler returns seven players from last year's team, including four starters. Penn State finished last season 14-13, the program's seventh consecutive winning season. Doebler carries a 46-32 record as head coach of the Nittany Lions.
The Nittany Lions will have a total of nine players participating this weekend in both singles and doubles competition. Being featured in Flight "A" singles will be senior Ryan Gormley (Las Vegas, Nev.), junior Eddie Bourchier (Hobart, Australia) and sophomore Jason Lee (Melbourne, Australia). Gormley returns for his senior season after recording a total of ten wins in 2008-09. Bourchier comes off a nice 14-win season last year, including a team-best 5-5 record versus Big Ten opponents. Lee had a stellar freshman campaign, as he won a total of 16 singles matches.
Competing in Flight "B" singles for the Lions will be sophomore Taylor Cohen (Philadelphia, Pa.) and freshmen Bryan Welnetz (Laredo, Texas) and Warren Hardie (Laguna Niguel, Calif.). Cohen is in his first season with Penn State after playing one year at Clemson, carrying a 5-4 singles record. Welnetz and Hardie will be making their collegiate debuts.
Squaring-off in Flight "C" singles for Penn State is senior Guillaume St-Maurice (Saint-Eustache, Quebec) and freshman C.J. Griffin (Portland, Mich.). St-Maurice returns after leading the Lions with 18 wins in singles competition last season. Griffin will be participating in his first collegiate action. Freshman Guanhua Chen (DaLian, China) will be featured in Flight "D" for the Nittany Lions.
Following competition at Princeton, Penn State will be off for a month before heading to Norfolk, Va. for the ITA Regional Championships on Oct. 23. The Big Ten Singles Tournament is slated for Oct. 29-Nov. 2 in East Lansing, Mich.