March 18, 2014
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State men's tennis team stayed at No. 27 in this week's ITA Poll, released Tuesday. The Nittany Lions are 13-2 and 0-1 in the Big Ten. After finishing their non-conference schedule last week, Penn State hosts Michigan State at 3 p.m. on Friday and then travels to No. 44 Michigan on Sunday for a Noon start.
Last week, the Nittany Lions fell 4-3 at No. 47 South Florida on Tuesday, but bounced back on Thursday with a 4-3 win against No. 62 UCF and a 6-1 win over Southern Miss.
Penn State won the doubles point in all three matches this weekend. David Kohan (Sydney, Australia) and Christian Lutschaunig (Richboro, Pa.) won all three of their matches this weekend, while Michael Reilly (Raleigh, N.C.) and Chris Young (Melbourne, Australia) helped the Nittany Lions to clinch the doubles point against USF with their 8-5 win over Oliver Pramming and Ignacio Gonzalez-Muniz, ranked 69th in the nation.
Matt Barry (Lido Beach, N.Y.) and Russell Bader (Austin, Texas) each picked up two singles wins. Marc Collado Castells (Barcelona, Spain), Kohan, Alex Fennell (Bala Cynwyd, Pa.), Reilly, #47 Leonard Stakhovsky (Kiev, Ukraine) and Roman Trkulja (Toronto, Canada) all got one singles win.
With 13 wins against non-conference opponents, Penn State has their most non-conference wins since 1987, when the team won 14 matches.
For the first time in program history, Penn State has four regular-season wins over ranked non-conference opponents, topping their previous high of three in 2009.
It is also Penn State's first time defeating four ranked opponents in a season since 2009 and first time defeating two ranked opponents on the road since 2009.
Penn State will have even more opportunities for wins against ranked opponents as they enter the rest of their Big Ten schedule. Penn State already faced No. 2 Ohio State, but nine of their remaining 10 opponents are represented in the ITA Poll.
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