March 18, 2012
ITHACA, N.Y. - The Penn State men's tennis team (10-4, 0-1) made the best of its final non-conference road trip, picking up its 10th win of the season over the Cornell Big Red (7-9). The Nittany Lions jumped out to a quick lead before senior Jason Lee (Sydney, Australia) closed out the match with an impressive victory in first singles.
Cornell got a jump start from Venkat Iyer and Quoc-Daniel Nguyen to start the match, as the duo downed Penn State's third doubles team of junior C.J. Griffin (Portland, Mich.) and red-shirt junior Christopher Hasyn (Lansdale, Pa.), 8-4. From there, Lee and sophomore Russell Bader (Austin, Texas) put Penn State in the driver seat. The ITA No. 19 duo overpowered Cornell's Alex Sidney and Jason Luu, 8-5, to secure their 11th win of the season. Senior Taylor Cohen (Philadelphia, Pa.) and junior Bryan Welnetz (Laredo, Texas) then sealed the doubles point with an 8-6 triumph over Danny Riggs and Sam Fleck.
Hasyn continued the momentum in singles play. He earned a 6-4, 6-3 win over Nguyen on court six. The win gave the red-shirt junior his ninth victory of the season, the highest single season total of his career. Cohen then won a tightly contested fourth singles bout (7-6 (4), 6-2) against Sidney to give the Nittany Lions a 3-0 lead.
All attention then turned to Lee on court one. The senior co-captain closed out a hard fought first set with a 7-5 victory over No. 109 Iyer. Lee then overpowered Iyer in the second set, 6-3, to clinch the Nittany Lion's 10th non-conference win of the season. The win was also Lee's first of the season against a ranked opponent.
After the match had been decided freshman Tomas Hanzlik (Prague, Czech Republic) improved to 8-5 on the season with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Fleck. Finally, Welnetz and Bader fell in their fifth and third singles contests, respectively, to close out the match.
Penn State will hit the road next weekend for two Big Ten conference matches. The team will open the road trip by traveling to Bloomington, Ind., to take on the Indiana Hoosiers Friday, March 24.
Penn State 5, Cornell 2
Doubles:
1. #19 Jason Lee/Russell Bader (PSU) def. Alex Sidney/Jason Luu (Cornell), 8-5
2. Taylor Cohen/Bryan Welnetz (PSU) def. Danny Riggs/Sam Fleck, 8-6
3. Venkat Iyer/Quoc-Daniel Nguyen (Cornell) def. C.J. Griffin/Christopher Hasyn (PSU) 8-4
Order of finish: 3, 1, 2
Singles:
1. Jason Lee (PSU) def. #109 Venkat Iyer (Cornell), 7-5, 6-3
2. Tomas Hanzlik (PSU) def. Sam Fleck (Cornell), 6-3, 6-2
3. Danny Riggs (Cornell) def. Russell Bader (PSU), 7-6 (5), 7-6 (3)
4. Taylor Cohen (PSU) def. Alex Sidney (Cornell), 7-6 (4), 6-2
5. Jason Luu (Cornell) def. Bryan Welnetz (PSU), 6-3, 6-4
6. Christopher Hasyn (PSU) def. Quoc-Daniel Nguyen (Cornell), 6-4, 6-3
Order of finish: 6, 4, 1, 2, 5, 3