April 11, 2013
EVANSTON, Ill. - The Penn State men's tennis team heads to the Midwest for a challenging weekend slate of Big Ten matches. The Nittany Lions travel to #34 Northwestern on Friday for a 7:00 p.m. ET start. Penn State then heads to #29 Illinois for a 1:00 p.m. ET match on Sunday.
Penn State enters the weekend 8-12 this spring and 2-5 in the Big Ten. Last weekend, the Nittany Lions split their matches against #37 Minnesota and Wisconsin. On Friday, Penn State fell 5-2 against the Golden Gophers, but bounced back on Sunday with a 4-2 win over Wisconsin.
C.J. Griffin (Portland, Mich.) went 2-0 last weekend in the number five singles spot. The senior clinched Penn State's victory over Wisconsin with a 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 win against Alexander Kokorev.
Junior Russell Bader (Austin, Texas) got his first start of the season at the number one singles spot and came up with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Petr Satral. Bader improved to 14-6 this spring and 5-2 in the Big Ten.
Matt Barry (Lido Beach, N.Y.) is 11-5 this spring and 23-11 overall. Barry has won seven of his last ten matches and is now four wins away from tying for sixth on the all-time single season wins list at Penn State.
Tomas Hanzlik (Prague, Czech Republic) is 12-8 this spring with three Big Ten wins.
Northwestern enters the weekend with a 17-7 mark, 3-4 in the Big Ten. They are ranked 34th in the April 9th ITA Poll. Last weekend, the Wildcats lost to #49 Michigan State 5-2 and #34 Michigan 6-1.
Spencer Wolf competes out of the number one singles spot for Northwestern and holds an 11-9 record this spring.
Raleigh Smith is 17-5 this spring and 22-6 overall. He is also 5-2 in Big Ten competition and has won eight of his last ten matches.
Sidarth Balaji and Chris Jackman each have 17 wins for the Wildcats. Jackman is 6-1 in Big Ten play, while Balaji is 5-2.
Balaji and Smith have paired up to go 12-5 in doubles and 2-4 in the Big Ten. The duo is 7-0 this year in the number two doubles spot.
Mihir Kumar and Alex Pasareanu are 10-6 in doubles this spring and have an 8-3 mark in number three doubles.
Illinois is ranked 29th in the nation and have a record of 12-8 this spring. The Fighting Illini are 5-2 in the Big Ten.
Last weekend, Illinois fell 5-2 to #34 Michigan on Friday and beat #49 Michigan State 4-3 on Sunday.
Jared Hiltzik is 12-4 this spring, 5-2 in the Big Ten and is ranked 36th in the ITA Singles Poll. He has three wins this year against ranked opponents.
Farris Gosea has a mark of 13-3 in dual matches and a 6-1 record in Big Ten play, while competing out of the number five and six spots. Gosea has won eight of his last ten matches.
Ross Guignon is 10-7 this spring, while Stephen Hoh is 6-1 in Big Ten matches.
Guignon and Tim Kopinski are ranked 19th in the nation in doubles and have a record of 8-2 this spring and 3-1 in the Big Ten. They are 4-0 against ranked opponents this season and have won eight of their last ten.
Hiltzik and Alex Jesse are 3-0 in Big Ten play and are winners of five straight.
Check back to gopsusports.com throughout the weekend for coverage of our matches.
Live scoring will be available for both matches and fans can also follow the action on our Facebook, Penn State Men's Tennis, and Twitter, @pennstateMTEN, pages.