Oct. 15, 2014
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State men's tennis team travels to the ITA Atlantic Regional Championships this weekend in Charlottesville, Va. The five-day regional begins on Thursday and is hosted by the University of Virginia at the Snyder Tennis Center. The Qualifying Draw will be start on Thursday, with the Main Draw finishing play on Sunday.
Head Coach Jeff Zinn will send 10 Nittany Lions to the regional. Penn State had a strong start to the fall at the Penn Invite with hidden-dual format wins against St. Joseph's, Cornell and Princeton. Four members of the team also competed at the ITA All-American Championships, which featured competition from the top players in the nation.
Junior Roman Trkulja (Toronto, Canada) and sophomore Nika Dolidze (Tbilisi, Georgia) share the team-lead with three wins each. Sophomores Marc Collado Castells (Barcelona, Spain) and Aws Laaribi (Rye, N.Y.) each have two wins.
Matt Barry (Lido Beach, N.Y.) and Alex Fennell (Bala Cynwyd, Pa.) both picked up a win at the ITA All-American Championships, while Michael Reilly (Raleigh, N.C.) earned a win at the Penn Invite.
Tomas Hanzlik (Prague, Czech Republic), Christian Lutschaunig (Richboro, Pa.) and Leonard Stakhovsky (Kiev, Ukraine) are seeking their first wins of the fall.
Hanzlik, a senior, returned to action for the first time in 11 months at the ITA All-American Championships. Stakhovsky, a junior ranked 29th in the ITA Poll, dropped a tight first round Main Draw match.
In the Draws released on Wednesday, all Nittany Lions will compete in the Main Draw, starting on Friday. Barry, Fennell, Hanzlik, Laaribi, Stakhovsky, and Trkulja each received first-round byes. Stakhovsky is the 3rd overall seed in the regional.
Reilly and Stakhovsky will combine in doubles as the 4th overall seed in the draw and received a first-round bye. The other Penn State doubles pairs for the weekend are Barry/Fennell, Collado Castells/Hanzlik, Dolidze/Lutschaunig and Laaribi/Trkulja. Laaribi and Trkulja went 2-0 at the Penn Invite.
Please check back to GoPSUSports.com throughout the weekend for 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.