Jan. 29, 2010
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - With two victories on the slate to open the 2010 season, the Penn State men's tennis team (2-0, 0-0) will travel to Gainesville, Fla. this weekend for ITA Kick-0ff Weekend. All action will take place at Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex on the University of Florida campus.
Penn State will square-off with 39th-ranked Georgia Tech on Saturday at 2 p.m. With a victory over Yellow Jackets, the Nittany Lions will play the winner of No. 11 Florida and No. 59 Furman. With a loss to Georgia Tech, Penn State will play the loser of Florida and Furman.
"Heading down the to the University of Florida will be a really big challenge," said Penn State head coach Todd Doebler. "This Georgia Tech team that we face in the first round will probably be a top 25 team before the year is over. Depending on how we do Saturday, we could face a really good Florida team or a Furman team that is coached by one of the legends of college tennis in Paul Scarpa."
Last Time Out
The Nittany Lions kicked-off the 2010 season with two victories over the Princeton Tigers and the Lehigh Mountain Hawks last Sunday. The Nittany Lions started the day with a 6-1 win over Princeton followed by a 7-0 defeating of Lehigh.
In the match vs. Princeton, Penn State came out and won the doubles point to garner the early 1-0 lead. Following the strong doubles play, the Nittany Lions cranked out victories in five of the six singles bouts to win the match, 6-1. In the match up with Lehigh, Penn State came out to win all three doubles matches and took a 1-0 advantage on the Mountain Hawks. The Lions then went on to win all six singles matches to lock a 7-0 victory. Junior Eddie Bourchier (Hobart, Australia) and freshman Bryan Welnetz (Laredo, Texas) each picked up two victories on the day for Penn State.
Scouting Georgia Tech
This is the first ever match up between Penn State and Georgia Tech. The No. 39 Yellow Jackets head to Gainesville with 5-0 overall record, recently coming off a nice 6-1 victory over the South Carolina Gamecocks. In dual matches, Georgia Tech carries a 24-6 record in singles action and 11-4 record in doubles action.
Georgia Tech is led by Guillermo Gomez, who is currently ranked the No. 5 singles player according to the ITA computer rankings. Gomez currently carries a 2-0 record in dual matches and is 15-2 overall. He is 7-1 vs. nationally ranked opponents. Eliot Potvin has served the majority of the season in the No. 2 for the Yellow Jackets. He is 3-0 in the No. 2 spot and 5-0 overall, with a victory coming in the No. 1 bout as well. Dusan Miljevic is the 112th ranked singles player in the ITA rankings.
Scouting Florida
If the Nittany Lions were to face the Gators, it would be the first ever match up between the two squads. Florida enters this weekend with a 1-1 overall record and ranked No. 11 according to the ITA computer rankings. The Gators are coming off a recent 5-2 loss at Baylor on Jan. 24.
Florida is led by Alexandre Lacroix who is currently ranked No. 7 in the ITA singles rankings. Laroix is 1-1 overall in singles competition and holds a career record of 56-28 as Florida's active wins leader. Antoine Benneteau and Joey Burkhard each lead the team with two wins in singles competition. The Gators have the No. 10 ranked doubles pairing in Lacroix and Benneteau.
Scouting Furman
Furman will be playing its first dual match of the 2010 season on Saturday vs. Florida. The 59th-ranked Paladins return their best player from a year ago in Sawyer Duncan. Last season, Duncan went 25-3 overall in singles action, including a perfect 10-0 record vs. conference opponents. Furman was crowned Southern Conference champs last season for the second year in a row.
Penn State-Furman
The Paladins hold a 13-10-3 lead on the Nittany Lions for the all-time series. The last time the two teams met was on March 4, 1988 when the Nittany Lions defeated the Paladins, 6-3. The last time Furman defeated Penn State was on March 4, 1987 in a 7-1 victory.
What's Next?
The Nittany Lions will return to Happy Valley next Sunday, Feb. 7 for a doubleheader match up with Bloomsburg and Maryland. Penn State will kickoff the day with a noon dual vs. the Huskies followed by a 5 p.m. battle with the Terrapins. The two matches on the 7th will be the beginning of an eight-match homestand. The Nittany Lions open up Big Ten season on March 7 at home vs. Purdue.