Oct. 17, 2012
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State men's tennis team will travel to the ITA Atlantic Regional in Charlottesville, Va. this weekend. The four-day regional will begin on Thursday, Oct. 18 with qualifying rounds and the main draw will start on Friday. Nine Nittany Lions will make the trip to the University of Virginia campus.
Guanhua Chen(DaLian, China) and Ramy Labna(Doha, Qatar) will participate in Thursday's qualifying round. Chen has a 2-4 record during the fall, including a win this past weekend at the Tennessee Invitational. Labna is 4-4 in singles this fall.
Senior Bryan Welnetz(Laredo, Texas) enters the weekend with a 4-2 record. Two wins came at the ITA All-American Championships. C.J. Griffin(Portland, Mich.), also a senior, has earned five wins this fall and advanced to the draw consolation semifinal at the Tennessee Invitational.
Junior Russell Bader(Austin, Texas) will lead the team into regionals with a 2-1 singles record so far this fall. Both wins came at the ITA All-American Championships. Fellow junior Chris Young(Melbourne, Australia) has picked up four wins this fall, including two at the Tennessee Invitational.
Tomas Hanzlik(Prague, Czech Republic) had an impressive fall debut at the UVA Ranked +1 Invitational. The sophomore won three matches and advanced to the draw final.
Freshman Matt Barry(Lido Beach, N.Y.) started his college a 6-4 record, with three each coming at the UVa Fall Classic and the Farnsworth/Princeton Invitational. He reached the draw final in Princeton. Roman Trkulja(Toronto, Canada) picked up his first college win at the ITA All-American Championships.
Bader and Trkulja began the year ranked 28th in the 2012 ITA Preseason Doubles Poll. The duo earned their first win of the season at the Ranked +1 Invitational.
Hanzlik and Welnetz have also combined this year and picked up a win at the Ranked +1 Invitational.
Barry and Griffin had an impressive run at the Tennessee Invitational, reaching the draw final. They claimed the doubles title after the team from Tennessee withdrew due to injury. They won three matches during the three-day tournament.
Chen and Young have also paired up in previous tournaments and have two wins this fall.
Please check back to gopsusports.com throughout the weekend for coverage of the ITA Atlantic Regional. Coverage will also be available at http://www.virginiasports.com/sports/m-tennis/va-m-tennis-body.html.