Jan. 30, 2015
By Sean Donnelly, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - It's been a big week for the Penn State men's tennis. After knocking off No. 19 Kentucky and No. 20 South Florida at the ITA Kick-Off last weekend, the Nittany Lions moved up 10 spots in the ITA poll, from No. 26 to No. 16.
With the two victories, head coach Jeff Zinn and his squad also clinched a berth to the ITA Team Indoor National Championships on February 13-16 in Chicago, Illinois, hosted by the University of Illinois.
"After this weekend, we really felt the team would move up in the rankings," said head coach Jeff Zinn. "We're ecstatic that we got up to 16 this week. That puts more emphasis on us to keep improving, keep pushing and keep moving up in the rankings, to prove that we are one of the better teams in the country."
After losing the doubles point and first two completed singles matches, the Nittany Lions rallied back from 3-0 to defeat Kentucky on its home court. Penn State proved it has the depth to go deep into matches, winning the bottom four singles positions.
Senior Tomas Hanzlik was at the center of the heroics, overcoming a 3-1 deficit to win five-straight games in the deciding match to defeat Kentucky's Jake Stefanik.
"I knew it was going to be a deciding match," said Hanzlik. "I felt like it was going to come down to me, and I felt confident enough in myself that I would win that match...It's a great boost four us in terms of confidence. We still have to keep working hard and not underestimate anyone, focusing on each and every match."
Aws Laaribi, a sophomore transfer from Wake Forrest, has had a great start to the season. He won both of his matches over the weekend, improving to 7-3 overall.
"To win at their home, especially at Kentucky who already had four matches on their schedule before playing us. It's good to get momentum going for the rest of the season. Our confidence really went up after beating Kentucky, being down three-love," said Laaribi.
It was all the confidence they needed to take down USF, 4-1, clinching their berth to the ITA Team Indoor National Championships for the first time since 2008. For the first time in program history, the Nittany Lions open the season with two straight wins against opponents in the Top 20.
After dropping his first singles match of the season, Junior Leonard Stakhovsky knew it was important to start off on a good note and lead the charge against USF. He didn't disappoint, knocking off USF's Roberto Cid, who is ranked 19th in the ITA poll.
"I didn't really play well in my first match against Kentucky because it was the first match of the season, and the guy was pretty good. I knew it was going to be a tough match. Everyone fought really hard against South Florida. It was a great team effort," said Stakhovsky.
Stakhovsky is excited to bring this past weekend's momentum back to Happy Valley, where the Nittany Lions held a 15-0 record last season.
"I have some friends coming to watch us, so it's just going to give us energy. We have a lot of momentum from last weekend, but I feel like we will be really pumped to continue our winning streak," said Stakhovsky.
Although it was a great weekend for the program moving forward, the team is focused on the upcoming matches. The Nittany Lions face Penn and Temple at home at home this weekend. In two weeks, they will go on the road and battle a talented Virginia Tech team.
"Penn is a good team," said Laaribi. "Even though we just won two games against Top 20 teams, we still have to take this match really seriously. We're really excited about going to Chicago, but we have three matches before then. We just gotta keep going, keep playing and keep our consistency up."
Senior Mike Reilly, one of only two seniors on the squad, was happy with the results of this past weekend, but is focused on the schedule ahead.
"We spent a couple days looking back and celebrating those wins. It feels good going to indoors, but at the end of the day, we've got a lot of matches coming up. We've got three important matchups before we go to Chicago. We're focused on Penn right now," said Reilly. "...Last year, the highest we got was No. 16, so we got a little taste of that ranking," said Reilly. "To start off the year at 16, you know we want to stay there and improve on that. We are getting better every day, and are taking care of business."
The men's tennis team will look to continue its winning ways when they host Penn at 9 a.m. and Temple at 2 p.m. on Sunday in a doubleheader at the Indoor Tennis Center.