Jan. 31, 2013
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State men's tennis team hosts two in-state rivals this Saturday, Feb. 2, as they face Penn and Lehigh. The Nittany Lions will take on Penn at 11 a.m., the match against Lehigh will follow at 5 p.m.
Penn State enters the weekend with a 2-4 record. Last weekend, they knocked off #59 New Mexico 6-1 to earn the Nittany Lions' first win over a ranked opponent since a 4-3 victory over #63 Princeton at home last season. It was Penn State's first win over a ranked opponent away from home since April 25, 2010 against #57 Northwestern. The Nittany Lions also faced #65 Wake Forest and #48 Alabama last weekend at the Wake Forest Tournament. Penn State lost 4-0 against Wake Forest and then dropped a tough 4-3 match against Alabama.
Bryan Welnetz(Laredo, Texas) has started the season strong with a 4-1 record, including a win over New Mexico's Samir Iftikhar, ranked 73rd in the ITA Poll. Russell Bader(Austin, Texas) and Tomas Hanzlik(Prague, Czech Republic) also have 4 wins a piece this spring.
Chris Young(Melbourne, Australia) picked up two wins last weekend to improve to 3-0 this spring.
Penn will make their spring debut this weekend. Freshmen Vim De Alwis and Blaine Willenborg each earned 10 wins this fall to lead the Quakers. De Alwis paired with Ismael Lahlou for 3 doubles wins this fall. Austin Kaplan and Nikola Kocovic also combined for 3 doubles wins.
Penn leads the all-time series 32-12 against Penn State.
Last weekend, Lehigh knocked off Drexel 6-1. The Mountain Hawks picked up the doubles point and won five of six singles matches. Sophomore Ben Gilman competed in the number one singles spot last weekend.
The Nittany Lions are 24-19 all-time against Lehigh.
GoPSUSports.com will have coverage of Saturday's doubleheader. Live stats will be available at http://www.gopsusports.com/livestats/c-tennis/xlive.htm. Fans can also follow the action on our Facebook, Penn State Men's Tennis, and twitter, @pennstateMTEN, pages.