Sept. 16, 2010
Farnsworth/Princeton Invitational Draws
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State men's tennis team opens the 2010 fall season beginning on Friday, Sept. 17 at the Farnsworth/Princeton Fall Invitational. The tournament will carry through Sunday, Sept. 19. Penn State will face some solid competition as players from Binghamton, Buffalo, Columbia, Cornell, Fairleigh Dickinson, Penn, Princeton, St. John's and Yale will all be participating.
Action will begin Friday, where there will be two rounds of doubles followed by one round of singles. Saturday will have one round of doubles followed by two rounds of singles. The finals for all doubles and singles draws will be played Sunday. Action on Friday is expected to begin around 9 a.m.
Head Coach Todd Doebler returns a total of seven players from last year's team and has two new additions. Penn State finished last season 15-11, the programs eighth consecutive winning season. Doebler carries a 61-43 record as head coach of the Nittany Lions.
The Nittany Lions will have a total of eight players participating this weekend in both singles and doubles competition. Being featured in Flight "A" singles will be senior Eddie Bourchier (Hobart, Australia), junior Jason Lee (Melbourne, Australia) and sophomore Bryan Welnetz (Laredo, Texas). Bourchier returns for his senior season after coming off an impressive 2010 season. Bourchier, who earned All-Big Ten honors last season, had a stellar year playing primarily in the No. 1 bout for the Nittany Lions. Lee is returning after having a solid 2010 campaign, winning a total of 17 matches. Welnetz had a team-high 17 dual match wins last spring.
Competing in Flight "B" singles for the Lions will be freshman Russell Bader (Austin, Texas). Bader will be making his collegiate debut for the Nittany Lions. Bader joins Penn State as the No. 28 recruit according to TennisRecruiting.net. He came from Westlake High School in Austin. Also joining Bader in the draw will be sophomore Taylor Cohen (Philadelphia, Pa.). Cohen went 11-8 in his first season with the Nittany Lions last year.
Squaring-off in Flight "C" singles for Penn State is sophomore C.J. Griffin (Portland, Mich.). Griffin returns after earning eight wins last season. Junior Chris Hasyn (Lansdale, Pa.) is coming off a redshirt season and will be in the Flight "D" draw. Sophomore Guanhua Chen (DaLian, China) will be featured in Flight "E" for the Nittany Lions. Chen won five matches during his rookie season.
In doubles competition, Bourchier and Lee will be the No. 1 seed in the Flight "A" bracket. Griffin and Hasyn as well as Welnetz and Bader will also participate in the draw. In the Flight "B" bracket, Cohen and Chen will team up.
Following competition at Princeton, Penn State will return the following week to the USTA Invitational at Flushing Meadows, N.Y., home of the U.S. Open, from Sept. 24-26.