April 3, 2014
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The No. 24 Penn State men's tennis team continues their Big Ten schedule this weekend as they travel to take on No. 70 Wisconsin and No. 51 Minnesota. The Nittany Lions face the Badgers at 7 p.m. on Friday and the Golden Gophers at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
Penn State enters this weekend with a mark of 17-2 overall and 4-1 in conference play.
The Nittany Lions topped then-No. 10 Illinois, 4-3, on Friday. It marked the program's first win over a Top 10 opponent.
Penn State lost the doubles point, but won singles matches at No. 1, No. 4 and No. 5 singles. They were also awarded the singles point at No. 2.
Penn State followed that up with another 4-3 victory against then-No. 28 Northwestern. The Nittany Lions claimed the doubles point in that match as well as singles matches at No. 1, No. 3 and No. 4.
The Nittany Lions have matched their best conference start in school history, winning four of their first five matches for the first time since 2007. That year is also the last time that Penn State won four straight Big Ten matches.
The Blue and White have seven wins this spring over ranked opponents, one shy of the school record set at eight in 2008.
With 17 overall wins, Penn State has their highest season total since 2006.
Sophomore Leonard Stakhovsky (Kiev, Ukraine) picked up his second-straight Big Ten Player of the Week Award. It is the third time overall this spring that he claimed the honor.
Stakhovsky, ranked 50th in the ITA Poll, knocked off Illinois's No. 9 Jared Hiltzik, 6-2, 6-2 on Friday. He followed that up with a 6-2, 6-2 win against Northwestern's No. 37 Raleigh Smith on Sunday.
With the wins, Stakhovsky improved to 15-2 this spring and now has six wins over ranked opponents.
Stakhovsky also paired up with Russell Bader (Austin, Texas) to go 1-1 in doubles last weekend. The duo are the 28th ranked doubles team in the ITA Poll. They fell 8-7(3) on Friday against Illinois' No. 3 Ross Guignon and Tim Kopinski, but they bounced back for an 8-5 win against Northwestern's Smith and Sam Shropshire on Sunday.
Bader earned career doubles win number 75 to become one of three Penn State players to accomplish that. Eddie Bourchier (2007-11) has 83 career wins, while Michael James (2004-08) has 78.
Bader also sits one win behind Ryan Berger (2203-07) for fifth place on the all-time singles wins list at Penn State. Bader has 89 career singles wins.
Sophomore Matt Barry (Lido Beach, N.Y.) went 2-0 this past weekend in the No. 4 singles spot. He clinched the win for Penn State against Northwestern. Barry enters this weekend with a 12-2 mark this spring and a 21-6 overall record.
Alex Fennell (Bala Cynwyd, Pa.) and Roman Trkulja (Toronto, Canada) each picked up a win over the weekend.
Michael Reilly (Raleigh, N.C.) and Chris Young (Melbourne, Australia), the 54th ranked doubles team, remained undefeated this weekend with a win against Northwestern. Their match against Illinois went unfinished. The pair is 10-0 this spring with two wins against ranked opponents.
Sophomore David Kohan (Sydney, Australia) and freshman Christian Lutschaunig (Richboro, Pa.) come into this weekend with an 11-4 record, while playing mostly at No. 3 doubles.
Penn State has clinched the doubles point in 17 of their 19 matches.
The Badgers, ranked 70th in the nation, are 9-9 overall and 1-4 in conference play. They have four wins this spring against ranked opponents and have a 9-1 mark at home.
Last weekend, they dropped a 4-3 result against No. 65 Indiana and fell 7-0 at No. 41 Purdue.
Sophomore Oskar Wikberg leads the Badgers with 10 wins this spring while competing mostly at the top singles spot. Elliott Sprecher has eight wins, while Jakhongir Jalalov has seven victories.
Wikberg and Jalalov have combined to go 2-5 at No. 1 doubles.
The Golden Gophers hold marks of 9-8 overall and 3-2 in the Big Ten. They split last weekend, falling 6-1 at Purdue on Friday, but they bounced back with a 4-3 win over Indiana on Sunday.
The Gophers have six wins this spring over ranked opponents.
Junior Leandro Toledo is ranked 66th in the ITA Singles Poll with a 13-4 record and three wins against ranked opponents.
Ruben Weber has nine wins while playing No. 2 singles. Mathieu Froment and Jack Hamburg also have nine wins each.
Froment and Hamburg are 11-1 this spring and ranked 19th in the nation. They have won 11 straight matches. Toledo and Eric Frueh have eight wins in dual matches.
Please check back to GoPSUSports.com throughout the weekend for more coverage of the Penn State men's tennis team. Updates are also available on our Facebook, Penn State Men's Tennis, and Twitter, @pennstateMTEN, pages.