Feb. 14, 2010
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The 55th- ranked Penn State men's tennis team (7-1, 0-0) picked up two 7-0 victories over the St. Bonaventure Bonnies and the Bucknell Bison on Sunday afternoon at the Penn State Indoor Tennis Center. Penn State finishes the weekend 3-0 and has its best start to the season since 2006 when the Nittany Lions started 11-1.
Penn State - St. Bonaventure
Penn State came out to win all three doubles matches early to gain a 1-0 advantage on the Bonnies. From there, the Nittany Lions won all six of their singles matches to secure a 7-0 victory.
In doubles action, the No. 3 pairing of senior Guillaume St-Maurice (Saint-Eustache, Quebec) and freshman Bryan Welnetz (Portland, Mich.) came out and held a 5-2 lead at one point in their match up with St. Bonaventure's Luis Guevara and Oscar Yanez. The Nittany Lion tandem held their lead and never looked back as they beat the Bonnies' pairing, 8-3.
In the No. 2 bout, senior Ryan Gormley (Las Vegas, Nev.) and freshman C.J. Griffin (Portland, Mich.) knocked off St. Bonaventure's Mikhail Sudakov and Enric Larregola, 8-4, to clinch the doubles point for the Lions. With the doubles point already determined, junior Eddie Bourchier (Hobart, Australia) and sophomore Jason Lee (Melbourne, Australia) beat St. Bonaventure's Chris Post and Diego Valdenegro (SBU), 8-7 (7-5) The match went to a tiebreaker for the eighth point. With the tiebreaker tied at five, Bourchier and Lee won the final two points to earn the victory.
With Penn State leading 1-0, the match turned to singles competition. The momentum was clearly on Penn State's side immediately as Bourchier took the first set from Post in the No. 1 bout, 6-2. Heading into the second set, Bourchier took a 4-3 lead on Post. From there he went on to win the final two games to capture the straight set victory, 6-2, 6-3. Penn State had a 2-0 lead.
Penn State continued to take control of the match as Gormley defeated Valdenegro in the No. 2 singles match up. Gormley easily took the first set 6-1. In the second set, Gormley started with a 3-0 lead. From there, he went on to win three of the next five games to win the second stanza, 6-2. Penn State led 3-0 at that point.
The clinching match came at No. 4 where Welnetz knocked off Laregolla, 6-2, 6-1 to give Penn State the victory. In the first set, Welnetz jumped out to a 4-0 lead giving him the advantage. Welnetz and Larregola were tied up at one in the second set, but the Nittany Lion freshman won the final five games to win the bout.
With the match already decided, Lee picked up his first victory of the weekend over Sudakov, 7-5, 6-3. Lee trailed for the majority of the first set, but came back to win the final three games to capture the first frame. That led to him capturing the second set to increase the score of the match to 5-0 in favor of Penn State.
In the No. 5 bout, sophomore Taylor Cohen (Philadelphia, Pa.) picked up a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Guevara to up the score to 6-0. Griffin defeated Yanez in a tiebreaker, 7-5, 3-6, 1-0 (10-8). In the tiebreaker, Griffin trailed Yanez by a score of 8-6. However, the Portland, Mich. native battled back to win the final four points to win his match and make the final score 7-0 in favor of the Lions.
Final Score: #55 Penn State 7 def. St. Bonaventure 0
Doubles
1. Eddie Bourchier/Jason Lee (PSU) def. Chris Post/Diego Valdenegro (SBU), 8-7 (7-5)
2. Ryan Gormley/C.J. Griffin (PSU) def. Mikhail Sudakov/Enric Larregola (SBU), 8-4
3. Guillaume St-Maurice/Bryan Welnetz (PSU) def. Luis Guevara/Oscar Yanez (SBU), 8-3
Order of finish: 1, 3, 2
Singles
1. Eddie Bourchier (PSU) def. Chris Post (SBU), 6-2, 6-3
2. Ryan Gormley (PSU) def. Diego Valdenegro (SBU), 6-1, 6-2
3. Jason Lee (PSU) def. Mikhail Sudakov (SBU), 7-5, 6-3
4. Bryan Welnetz (PSU) def. Enric Larregola (SBU), 6-2, 6-1
5. Taylor Cohen (PSU) def. Luis Guevara, 6-4, 6-4
6. C.J. Griffin (PSU) def. Oscar Yanez, 7-5, 3-6, 1-0 (10-8)
Order of finish: 1, 2, 4, 3, 5, 6
Penn State vs. Bucknell
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 all six singles bouts to win the match, 7-0.
In doubles action, Bourchier and Lee teamed up and faced Bucknell's Kelly Morque and Evan Zimmer. The Nittany Lion tandem swept the Bison, 8-0, to win their match. In the No. 3 bout, Griffin and Gormley took on Josh Katten and Clark Bogle. The Penn State duo won the match, 8-3, to clinch the doubles point. With the point already decided, St-Maurice and Cohen defeated Zach Hascoe and Gregg Cohenca, 8-3.
Penn State took its 1-0 lead into singles action. St-Maurice played in the No. 4 position and dominated Bogle winning in straight sets, 6-0, 6-1. Following Bourchier's victory, Gormley picked up a straight-set victory for Penn State over Cohenca, 6-2, 6-1. The Nittany Lions had a 3-0 lead on the Bison.
The match was clinched in the No. 3 bout where Welnetz battled with Zimmer. After a dominant 6-1 first set win for Welnetz, Zimmer gave him more of a challenge in the second set. Welnetz held a 3-2 lead and eventually went on to win three of the next five games to secure a second set victory, 6-4. With the victory, the freshman finished the weekend with a 3-0 record in singles action.
With the match already decided, Lee improved to 5-3 on the spring season with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Morque. Freshman Guanhua Chen (DaLian, China) tallied his second victory of the spring with a 6-0, 6-2 win over Gregory Maxson. Griffin finished off the match for Penn State as he defeated Katten, 6-2, 7-5 for his second singles victory of the day.
Final Score: #55 Penn State 7 Bucknell 0
Doubles
1. Eddie Bourchier/Jason Lee (PSU) def. Kelly Morque/Evan Zimmer (Buck.), 8-0
2. Guillaume St-Maurice/Taylor Cohen (PSU) def. Zach Hascoe/Gregg Cohenca (Buck.), 8-3
3. C.J. Griffin/Ryan Gormley (PSU), def. Josh Katten/Clark Bogle (Buck.), 8-3
Order of finish: 1, 3, 2
Singles
1. Ryan Gormley (PSU) def. Gregg Cohenca (Buck.), 6-2, 6-1
2. Jason Lee (PSU) def. Kelly Morque (Buck.), 6-2, 6-3
3. Bryan Welnetz (PSU) def. Evan Zimmer (Buck.), 6-1, 6-4
4. Guillaume St-Maurice (PSU) def. Clark Bogle (Buck.), 6-0, 6-1
5. C.J. Griffin (PSU) def. Josh Katten (Buck.), 6-2, 7-5
6. Guanhua Chen (PSU) def. Gregory Maxson (Buck.), 6-0, 6-3
Order of finish: 4, 1, 3, 2, 6, 5
Penn State will continue its eight-match homestand with Cornell on Feb. 27. The Nittany Lions will take on Army and Lafayette the following day in a doubleheader. Big Ten season will kickoff for Penn State on March 7 with an 11 a.m. match up with Purdue on the University Park campus.