March 19, 2010
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The 44th-ranked Penn State men's tennis team (11-3, 1-0) suffered a difficult 4-1 loss to Harvard on Friday at the Blue Gray Tennis Classic in Montgomery, Ala. With the loss, the Nittany Lions will face Middle Tennessee State on Saturday.
The Crimson came out and won two of the three doubles matches. From there, three of the four singles matches ended in Harvard's favor, giving them the 4-1 victory.
The No. 3 doubles matchup featured senior Guillaume St-Maurice (Saint-Eustache, Quebec) and sophomore Taylor Cohen (Philadelphia, Pa.) facing Harvard's Alexei Chijoff-Evans and Joshua Tchan. The Crimson pairing jumped out to a 4-1 lead early and never looked back, as they handed St-Maurice and Cohen an 8-4 loss.
The Nittany Lions evened up doubles competition on court No. 2 when senior Ryan Gormley (Las Vegas, Nev.) and freshman Warren Hardie (Laguna Niguel, Calif.) faced Harvard's Alistair Felton and Andy Nguyen. With the Nittany Lion tandem leading 4-3, Gormley and Hardie outscored the Crimson 4-2 in the final six games to secure an 8-5 victory.
The doubles point was decided in the No. 1 bout where junior Eddie Bourchier (Hobart, Australia) and sophomore Jason Lee (Melbourne, Australia) teamed up against Harvard's Aba Omodele-Lucien and Christo Schultz. The match was tied at six, but Omodele-Lucien and Schultz won the final two games to clinch the doubles point.
With Harvard leading 1-0, the match moved to singles action. On court No. 1, Bourchier had a difficult loss to Chijoff-Evans, 6-0, 6-4. In the No. 5 bout freshman Bryan Welnetz (Laredo, Texas) faced Tchan. After getting swept 6-0 in the first set, Welnetz challenged Tchan in the second set, but was unable to get over the hump in a 6-0, 7-5 loss. Harvard had a 3-0 lead.
The overall match was decided in the No. 2 matchup where Gormley had a tough 6-4, 6-4 loss to Omodele-Lucien. St-Maurice picked up the lone victory for the Lions as he won his 10th consecutive match in a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Schultz. Lee and Hardie did not finish their matches since Harvard already clinched the overall match.
Penn State will take on Middle Tennessee State tomorrow with a 2 p.m. approximate start time. The match can be followed via a live stats link on GoPSUSports.com. Following the Blue Gray Classic, the Nittany Lions will head to Columbus, Ohio on March 28 to take on the No. 4 Ohio State Buckeyes. Penn State will continue Big Ten play at Minnesota on April 2.
Final Score: #63 Harvard 4 #44 Penn State 0
Doubles
1. Aba Omodele-Lucien/Christo Schultz (Harvard) def. Eddie Bourchier/Jason Lee (PSU), 8-6
2. Ryan Gormley/Warren Hardie (PSU) def. Alistair Felton/Andy Nguyen (Harvard), 8-5
3. Alexei Chijoff-Evans/Joshua Tchan (Harvard) def. Guillaume St-Maurice/Taylor Cohen (PSU), 8-4
Order of finish: 3, 2, 1
Singles
1. Alexei Chijoff-Evans (Harvard) def. Eddie Bourchier (PSU), 6-0, 6-4
2. Aba Omodele-Lucien (Harvard) def. Ryan Gormley (PSU), 6-4, 6-4
3. Andy Nguyen (Harvard) vs. Jason Lee (PSU), DNF
4. Warren Hardie (PSU) vs. Alistair Felton (Harvard), DNF
5. Joshua Tchan (Harvard) def. Bryan Welnetz (PSU), 6-0, 7-5
6. Guillaume St-Maurice (PSU) def. Christo Schultz (Harvard), 6-2, 6-1
Order of finish: 1, 5, 2, 6