Sept. 19, 2012
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - The Penn State men's tennis team travels to Charlottesville, Va. this weekend, Sept. 21-23, for the Ranked plus One Tournament. The Nittany Lions will continue a challenging fall schedule that features tournaments with multiple ranked opponents. Penn State will send Russell Bader(Austin, Texas), Tomas Hanzlik(Prague, Czech Republic), Roman Trkulja(Toronto, Canada), and Bryan Welnetz(Laredo, Texas) to the tournament this weekend.
Among the teams sending players are North Carolina, Wake Forest, VCU, Michigan, Virginia Tech, Illinois, Ole Miss, Louisville, Memphis, and Middle Tennessee State. All of those teams were ranked in the 2012 Final ITA Poll.
Junior Russell Bader will get his first action of the season. Last year, the Texas native went 23-15 in singles, including 9-4 in the fall. He also went 24-11 in doubles, with a fall record of 7-5. He ended the season with a berth in the NCAA Doubles Tournament with teammate Jason Lee. His 24 wins were the third most in school history for a single season.
Tomas Hanzlik will make his 2012 fall debut after going 20-15 last year in singles and 8-4 in the fall. The sophomore added six doubles wins, including two in the fall.
One of five seniors returning this year, Welnetz went 21-16 in singles and 19-17 in doubles last year. Last fall, he finished with a record of 7-6 in singles and 7-5 in doubles.
Making his collegiate debut will be freshman Roman Trkulja(Toronto, Canada). Trkulja brings an impressive resume to Penn State. This past August, Trkulja advanced to the doubles final at the U-18 Rogers Outdoor Junior Nationals. It marked the sixth straight year that he reached the doubles final.
Bader and Trkulja enter the season as the 28th ranked doubles team in the 2012 ITA Preseasonal Poll.