March 20, 2013
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State men's tennis team returns home this weekend for two matches against Big Ten foes as they take on Indiana on Friday at 2:00 p.m. and #63 Purdue on Sunday at Noon. Both matches will be played in the Indoor Tennis Center. Penn State enters the weekend 6-8 overall and 0-1 in Big Ten play.
The Nittany Lions were off last week after splitting a pair of matches over Spring Break. They dropped a 5-2 result to #21 Texas, but responded with a 4-3 win over Rice.
Penn State reached as high as #69 in the ITA Rankings after spring break, but dropped out of the poll this week. The Nittany Lions will look to get back into the polls with a strong weekend.
Tomas Hanzlik (Prague, Czech Republic) and Russell Bader (Austin, Texas) both enter the weekend with nine wins this spring. Hanzlik earned his first win over a ranked opponent this year against Texas when he defeated #80 Daniel Whitehead 6-4, 1-6, 6-4.
Bryan Welnetz (Laredo, Texas) is 6-6 out of the number one singles spot. Roman Trkulja (Toronto, Canada) also has six wins this spring and Chris Young (Melbourne, Australia) has five.
Freshman Matt Barry (Lido Beach, N.Y.) enters the weekend riding an eight-match win streak.
Welnetz and C.J. Griffin (Portland, Mich.) lead the Nittany Lions with six doubles wins. Bader and Guanhua Chen (DaLian, China) are 4-4 this spring.
Indiana is 8-8 this spring and will play their first Big Ten matches this weekend. Last week, they swept both Florida Atlantic and Webber International 7-0.
The Hoosiers boast outstanding doubles play, including the nation's 31st ranked doubles team in Sam Monette and Isade Juneau. The duo are 12-0 this spring.
Josh MacTaggart and Daniel Bednarczyk are 8-3 in the number two doubles spot. In the third spot, Chris Essick and Dimitrije Tasic 10-3.
Juneau is 10-6 out of the number one singles spot. Monette leads the Hoosiers with 13 wins and has won four-straight matches. MacTaggart is riding a ten-match win streak and owns a 12-4 mark.
Purdue jumped up to #63 in the ITA Rankings this week and carry a 13-3 record.
The Boilermakers also play their first Big Ten matches this weekend. They take on #5 Ohio State on Friday in their first match before traveling to State College on Sunday.
Last week, Purdue knocked off Fresno State 4-3 and Santa Clara 4-3.
Szymon Tatarczyk is 8-3 in the number one singles spot for Purdue. Krisztian Krocsko leads the Boilermakers with ten wins.
Aaron Dujovne has an 8-2 record, while Mark Kovacs and Diego Acosta each have sevens wins.
Acosta and Dujovne have combined for an 8-2 record in doubles in the number one spot.
This Friday is a Code Blue Blast at Penn State men's tennis. Students can swipe in with their Penn State ID Cards at the Code Blue table to be entered to win a free 16 GB iPad 2. A winner will be drawn between the doubles and singles matches.
B94.5 will be doing a live remote starting at 1:00 p.m. and there will be free pizza for everyone at 2:00 p.m.
Live scoring will be available for both matches. Fans can also follow the action on our Facebook, Penn State Men's Tennis, and Twitter, @pennstateMTEN, pages.