April 5, 2013
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State men's tennis team fell 5-2 to #37 Minnesota on Friday at the Indoor Tennis Center. The Nittany Lions were not able to capture the doubles point and got two singles wins, including one from Ramy Labna in his first career Big Ten start. Penn State dropped to 7-12 on the year and 1-5 in the Big Ten. The Golden Gophers improved to 9-8 and 5-1 in the Big Ten, while extending their win streak to five matches.
Minnesota's Rok Bonin and Juan Pablo Ramirez got the first doubles win of the day for Minnesota, with an 8-3 victory over C.J. Griffin (Portland, Mich.) and Tomas Hanzlik (Prague, Czech Republic).
Roman Trkulja (Toronto, Canada) and Chris Young (Melbourne, Australia) responded by winning their match 8-3 against Leandro Toledo and Eric Frueh.
In the decisive third set, Minnesota's Jack Hamburg and Mathieu Froment earned an 8-5 win against Russell Bader (Austin, Texas) and Guanhua Chen (DaLian, China) to clinch the doubles point for Minnesota.
C.J. Griffin (Portland, Mich.) got Penn State on the board with his win over Juan Pablo Ramirez. Griffin won the first set 6-4, but Ramirez came back with a 6-4 win of his own. In the third set super-tiebreaker, Griffin came out on top 10-8.
Ramy Labna (Doha, Qatar) got his first career start in a Big Ten match. It was a very impressive debut for the sophomore. Labna battled to win a tough first set 7-6(7-4) against Ruben Weber. However, Weber came back to win the second set 6-4. In the super-tiebreaker set, Labna earned a 10-8 win. Labna is now 2-0 in duals this spring.
"It was great for Ramy and C.J. to get their first Big Ten wins today," said Head Coach Jeff Zinn. "It was Ramy's first career start in a Big Ten match. We hope that they will keep contributing for us this year."
Rok Bonin came into the match ranked 41st in the nation for the Golden Gophers. Tomas Hanzlik competed against Bonin in the number one singles spot. Bonin got the first set 6-3. In the second set, Hanzlik rallied from down 4-1 to take a 5-4 lead, but was unable to close out the comeback as Bonin won 7-5. The win gave Minnesota their third point.
At number two singles, Russell Bader got his second start of the year in that spot. He had a tough assignment against Leandro Toledo, ranked 100th in the nation. Toledo won the match 6-4, 6-4 to put Minnesota up 2-0. The loss snapped a five-match win streak for Bader.
Freshman Matt Barry got his first start of the year in the number three singles spot. Barry looked to continue a hot stretch that included eight wins in his last ten matches. After dropping the first set 2-6 against Jack Hamburg, Barry came back to get the second set 6-3. In the third set, Hamburg topped Barry 6-3 for the win. The victory clinched the match for Minnesota with their fourth point of the day.
"As a coaching staff, we're proud of the way that our guys fought against a great Minnesota team that is one of the top teams in the Big Ten. They played with great intensity today and we hope that continues on Sunday."
Penn State will return to action on Sunday at 11 a.m. against Wisconsin.
Doubles:
1. Hamburg/Froment(Minn) def. Bader/Chen(PSU), 8-5
2. Bonin/Ramirez(Minn) def. Griffin/Hanzlik(PSU), 8-3
3. Trkulja/Young(PSU) def. Toledo/Frueh(Minn), 8-3
Order of Finish:2,3,1
Singles:
1. #41 Rok Bonin(Minn) def. Tomas Hanzlik(PSU) , 6-3, 7-5
2. #100 Leandro Toledo(Minn) def. Russell Bader(PSU), 6-4, 6-4
3. Jack Hamburg(Minn) def. Matt Barry(PSU), 6-2, 3-6, 6-3
4. Mathieu Froment(Minn) def. Roman Trkulja(PSU), 1-6, 7-6(7-5), 6-2
5. C.J. Griffin(PSU) def. Juan Pablo Ramirez(Minn), 6-4, 4-6, 10-8
6. Ramy Labna(PSU) def. Ruben Weber(Minn), 7-6(7-4), 4-6, 10-8
Order of Finish: 2,1,3,4,5,6