March 6, 2013
AUSTIN, Texas - The #72 Penn State men's tennis team travels to Texas for a pair of matches this week. The Nittany Lions will take on #15 Texas on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. ET. That match will be televised on the Longhorn Network. Penn State will then face Rice on Saturday at 12:00 p.m. ET. Penn State enters the week with a 5-7 record.
Penn State entered the ITA Rankings for the first time this season, making their debut at #72. It's the Nittany Lions' first appearance in the ITA Poll since March 8, 2011 when they were ranked #70. Penn State is one of 11 ranked Big Ten teams.
The Nittany Lions will look to bounce back this week after suffering a 7-0 loss against #7 Ohio State this past weekend. With the loss, Penn State fell to 1-7 against ranked opponents this season.
The matches this week finish up the non-conference portion of Penn State's schedule.
The match against Texas will be televised on ESPN's Longhorn Network. The broadcasters for the match are Steve Weisman and Joe Wiegand. It's Penn State's first ever appearance on a national TV network.
Penn State is led by senior Bryan Welnetz (Laredo, Texas), who continued his strong singles play even in defeat as he pushed Peter Kobelt, the number 2 player in the nation, in a 6-7(4-7), 6-2, 7-6(7-4) loss. Welnetz led 5-2 in the final set, before Kobelt came back to win. Welnetz is now 6-4 this spring and remains five wins away from tying Jamie Gresh for tenth all-time at Penn State with 77 wins.
Russell Bader (Austin, Texas) returns to his hometown with an 8-4 record this spring. The Westlake High School alum had his five-match win streak snapped against the Buckeyes.
Sophomore Tomas Hanzlik (Prague, Czech Republic) has seven wins for the Nittany Lions this spring, with most of those coming out of the number three singles spot.
Matt Barry (Lido Beach, N.Y.) is 6-2 this spring and carries a six-match win streak. Barry is 18-8 overall this year. Chris Young (Melbourne, Australia) and Roman Trkulja (Toronto, Canada) each have five wins this spring for the Nittany Lions.
Penn State is led in doubles by Welnetz and C.J. Griffin (Portland, Mich.). The duo are 5-2 this spring and had their five-match win streak snapped against Ohio State. Bader and Guanhua Chen (DaLian, China) are 3-3 this spring.
Texas enters the week 7-4 and ranked 15th in the nation. The match will be their third televised on the Longhorn Network. All four of Texas' losses are against ranked opponents.
The Longhorns split a pair of matches last weekend, falling 5-2 against #44 Florida State and knocking off #75 South Florida 6-1.
Soren Hess-Olesen leads the way in singles. He is ranked 50th in the nation and holds a 3-4 record this spring, 9-5 overall. He is joined in the rankings by #80 Daniel Whitehead, who is 15-11 overall and 6-4 this spring. Lloyd Glasspool has eight wins for the Longhorns.
The Longhorns boast the 11th ranked doubles team in the nation as well. Chris Camillone and David Holiner hold that honor with a 2-2 record this spring, 11-6 overall.
Rice is 4-7 this spring, with all of their losses also coming against ranked opponents. The Owls competed at the West Coast Doubles Tournament last weekend.
They are led in singles by Jonathan Chang, who is 6-5 this spring out of the number one singles spot. Tommy Bennett is also 6-5 this spring, while competing in the fourth spot. Adam Gustafsson, Philipp Seifert, and Gustavo Gonzalez all have five wins this spring.
Bennett and Gustafsson have combined in the number one doubles spot for the Owls. The pair is 4-6 this spring. Seifert and Peter Frank are 3-1.
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.