Feb. 4, 2014
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State men's tennis team(4-0) entered the ITA Poll for the first time this season, making their debut at No. 58.
The Nittany Lions were last ranked in the March 12, 2013 ITA Poll after entering it the previous week.
Penn State is one of 11 Big Ten schools in the rankings. Fourteen Penn State opponents are also represented in the poll.
The ranking comes after Penn State knocked off #33 Virginia Tech, 4-3, on Saturday and Cleveland State, 6-1, on Sunday.
Penn State is one of three Big Ten schools with a win over a Top 40 opponent this spring.
The Nittany Lions' Leonard Stakhovsky (Kiev, Ukraine) and Russell Bader (Austin, Texas) earned wins over ranked opponents. Stakhovsky defeated Virginia Tech's Amerigo Contini, ranked 26th, and Bader topped the Hokies' Andreas Bjerrehus, ranked 60th.
Matt Barry (Lido Beach, N.Y.) clinched the win for Penn State with his victory over Florian Nicoud at the No. 5 singles spot.
Penn State followed that up with their win over the Vikings, in which they won the doubles point and got wins in five of the six singles matchups.
The Nittany Lions welcome four opponents this weekend to the Indoor Tennis Center. Penn State takes on UMBC at 11 a.m. and Bucknell at 5 p.m. on Saturday. They face Binghamton at 11 a.m. and Lehigh at 5 p.m. on Sunday.