Feb. 11, 2014
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The No. 58 Penn State men's tennis team had two members of the squad make their debuts in the ITA Poll on Tuesday. Sophomore Leo Stakhovsky (Kiev, Ukraine) is ranked 54th, while senior Russell Bader (Austin, Texas) is ranked 119th.
Penn State is one of three Big Ten schools to have multiple representatives in the poll. Illinois has three players and Northwestern has two. Overall, the Big Ten has 10 players ranked.
Stakhovsky won all four of his matches this past weekend to improve to 7-0 this spring, while competing at the top singles spot for the Nittany Lions.
Among those seven wins for Stakhovsky is a 6-5(4), 6-0 victory over the then-No. 26 Amerigo Contini of Virginia Tech.
Bader also went 4-0 this past weekend. He has won his first eight matches of the spring and 11 straight, dating back to the fall season. Bader is 15-4 overall this year and is tied with Marc Collado Castells (Barcelona, Spain) for the team lead in wins.
The Austin, Texas native also earned a win over a ranked opponent against Virginia Tech. Bader knocked off then-No. 60 Andreas Bjerrehus, 6-4, 5-6(5), 6-4.
Bader is quickly climbing up the all-time lists at Penn State. After this past weekend, Bader has 83 career singles wins and is in a three-way tie for seventh all-time at Penn State. Bader also picked up his career doubles win number 68. He is tied for fifth all-time in school history.
The Nittany Lions host #33 VCU on Sunday in the Indoor Tennis Center. The match starts at 1 p.m. The Rams had two players ranked in the ITA Poll. Alejandro Argente is ranked 66th, while Alexis Heugas is 73rd.
Penn State improved to 8-0 this past weekend as they defeated UMBC and Bucknell on Saturday and Binghamton and Lehigh on Sunday.
Please check back to GoPSUSports.com throughout the week for updates on the Penn State men's tennis team. Updates are also available on our Facebook, Penn State Men's Tennis, and Twitter, @pennstateMTEN, pages.