April 12, 2013
EVANSTON, Ill. - The Penn State men's tennis team dropped their match, 5-2, against #34 Northwestern on Friday in Evanston. The Wildcats claimed the doubles point with two wins, including one from their ranked pair. Penn State got singles wins from Russell Bader and Tomas Hanzlik in the top two singles spots. Penn State fell to 8-13 this spring and 2-6 in the Big Ten. Northwestern improved to 18-7 overall and 4-4 in conference play.
Roman Trkulja (Toronto, Canada) and Chris Young (Melbourne, Australia) combined in the number three doubles spot against Sidarth Balaji and Chris Jackman. The Nittany Lion pair earned an 8-5 victory to improve to 3-2 in Big Ten play.
Spencer Wolf and Alex Pasareanu paired up for Northwestern in the number one doubles spot. The duo is ranked 68th in the nation. They defeated Russell Bader (Austin, Texas) and Guanhua Chen (DaLian, China) 8-3.
In the number two doubles matchup, Matt Barry (Lido Beach, N.Y.) and Tomas Hanzlik (Prague, Czech Republic) paired up for the first time this spring, but fell 8-4 against Raleigh Smith and Mihir Kumar. The win clinched the doubles point for Northwestern.
Junior Russell Bader won his second straight match in the number one singles spot. Northwestern's Spencer Wolf claimed the first set with a 6-4 win, but Bader came back with a 6-4 win of his own in the second set. Bader came out on top 6-3 in the third set to improve to 15-6 this spring and 6-2 in the Big Ten.
Tomas Hanzlik got the start in the number two spot and took on Raleigh Smith. Hanzlik dropped the first set 3-6, but responded with a 7-6(8-6) win in the 2nd set. In the third, Hanzlik won the tiebreaker 1-0(11-9) to earn the victory. It was the seventh time this year that the Nittany Lions got wins out of both of their top two spots.
Freshman Matt Barry got his third start of the year in the number three singles spot and faced off against Balaji. Barry dropped a 6-3, 6-2 result and is now 11-6 this spring.
In the fourth doubles spot, C.J. Griffin (Portland, Mich.) got his first start of the spring in that position. However, Northwestern's Kumar came away with the 6-0, 6-2 victory.
Freshman Roman Trkulja competed in the fifth spot against Alex Pasareanu, but fell 6-4, 6-2. Trkulja is 2-5 in Big Ten matches.
Ramy Labna (Doha, Qatar) got his third straight start in Big Ten play at number six singles. Northwestern's Jackman came away with a win in a tough 7-6(8-6) first set and then carried his momentum into a 6-1 win in the 2nd set.
The Nittany Lions return to action on Sunday at #29 Illinois. The match starts at 1:00 p.m. ET.
Doubles:
1. #68 Wolf/Pasareanu(NW) def. Bader/Chen(PSU), 8-3
2. Smith/Kumar(NW) def. Barry/Hanzlik(PSU), 8-4
3. Trkulja/Young(PSU) def. Balaji/Jackman(NW), 8-5
Order of Finish: 1,2,3
Singles:
1. Russell Bader(PSU) def. Spencer Wolf(NW), 4-6, 6-4, 6-3
2. Tomas Hanzlik(PSU) def. Raleigh Smith(NW), 3-6, 7-6(8-6), 1-0(11-9)
3. Sidarth Balaji(NW) def. Matt Barry(PSU), 6-3, 6-2
4. Mihir Kumar(NW) def. C.J. Griffin(PSU), 6-0, 6-2
5. Alex Pasareanu(NW) def. Roman Trkulja(PSU), 6-4, 6-2
6. Chris Jackman(NW) def. Ramy Labna(PSU), 7-6(8-6), 6-1
Order of Finish: 3,5,4,6,1,2