Sept. 13, 2012
PRINCETON, N.J. - The Penn State men's tennis team will begin a challenging fall schedule with its debut at the Farnsworth/Princeton Invitational this weekend, September 14-16. This marks the fourth straight year that the Nittany Lions will open the fall at the Princeton Invitational, held at the Lenz Tennis Center. The tournament will run all day Friday through Sunday. The format of the tournament includes six draws of 16 players each in singles and three draws of 16 pairs each in doubles.
The invitational field is highlighted by four teams that were ranked in the 2012 Final ITA Poll. They are Columbia, Cornell, St. John's and Wake Forest. Rounding out the field are Binghamton, Boston College, Bucknell, Buffalo, Fairleigh Dickinson, Georgetown, Penn, Princeton, and Yale.
The Nittany Lions will send four members of the squad to Princeton, including Matt Barry(Lido Beach, N.Y.), C.J. Griffin(Portland, Mich.), Ramy Labna(Doha, Qatar), and Chris Young(Melbourne, Australia).
The freshman Barry will compete in his first collegiate match. He comes to Penn State as a five-star recruit according to Tennisrecruiting.net. He earned All-State honors in New York. He participated in the Boy's 18 National Open, National Clay Court Championship, and National Hard Court Championship.
Beginning his senior campaign is Griffin, who went 4-9 in singles and 10-18 in doubles last year, including 2-4 in singles and 3-2 in doubles last fall. He opened last year with a win in both singles and doubles at the Princeton Invitational. Labna went 0-1 in singles in limited action last year. He will look to gain more playing time this season. The junior, Young, ended last year with a 7-11 singles record, including 4-5 in the fall. He also went 5-10 in doubles, including 2-5 in the fall. He opened last season with a 2-1 singles performance at the Princeton Invitational.
Head Coach Jeff Zinn enters his second year at Penn State, after finishing last year with an 11-14 record.
Please check back to gopsusports.com throughout the weekend for updates on the Farnsworth/Princeton Invitational.