April 27, 2010
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Penn State men's tennis junior Eddie Bourchier (Hobart, Australia) has been named Big Ten Co-Athlete of the Week along with Ohio State's Justin Kronauge, the conference office announced on Tuesday.
Bourchier earned a total of three wins over ranked opponents this past weekend in singles and doubles action. The junior is the program's first player to earn conference laurels since April 24, 2008 when Michael James received the honors.
Bourchier, who is currently ranked 108th in the latest ITA singles rankings, picked up a pair of doubles victories over ranked opponents from Wisconsin and Northwestern this past weekend. He additionally clinched the match in Penn State's 4-3 victory over Northwestern on Sunday when he upset No. 91 Joshua Graves.
With Penn State leading the No. 57 Wildcats 3-1 on Sunday, Bourchier picked up a huge three-set victory over Graves, 2-6, 6-1, 6-4. The All-Big Ten candidate was down a set and trailed early in the second set, 1-0. After winning the next six games, Bourchier forced a third set. Trailing 2-0 in the final stanza, Bourchier won six of the last eight games to clinch the third set and the overall match for Penn State.
In doubles action, Bourchier and senior Guillaume St-Maurice (Saint-Eustache, Quebec) improved to 4-3 as a team this spring with two big doubles victories over the weekend. Last Friday at No. 27 Wisconsin, the Lion duo recorded an 8-7 (7-3) victory over the 16th-ranked doubles team in the country in Moritz Bauman and Marek Michalicka. The pairing then finished their strong weekend with a victory over Northwestern's 54th-ranked team of Joshua Graves and Spencer Wolf, 8-3.
Bourchier finishes the spring with a 14-7 mark in singles action, including a solid 5-5 record vs. Big Ten opponents in the No. 1 bout. The Australian native additionally went 4-4 vs. nationally ranked opponents.
Penn State will now turn its attention to the 2010 Big Ten Championship in Bloomington, Ind. The Nittany Lions will serve as the No. 8 seed and face the ninth-seeded Northwestern Wildcats in a rematch of Sunday's contest at 9 a.m. on Thursday. The winner of the match will face top-seeded Ohio State on Friday morning.