Jan. 30, 2015
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The No. 16 Penn State men's tennis team will look to continue their hot start to the season as they host in-state rivals Penn and Temple on Sunday. The Nittany Lions are 2-0 after knocking off No. 19 Kentucky and No. 20 South Florida at the ITA Kickoff Weekend in Lexington, Ky. After jumping up 10 spots in the ITA Poll, Penn State will face the Quakers at 9 a.m. and the Owls at 2 p.m. in the Indoor Tennis Center.
Penn State matched the highest ranking in program history when the ITA Poll was released on Wednesday. The blue and white were also 16th on April 8, 2014.
The Nittany Lions, led by Head Coach Jeff Zinn and Assistant Coach Paul Tobin, came back from down 3-0 to defeat Kentucky, 4-3, last Friday. They carried their momentum into Saturday with a 4-1 victory against the Bulls.
Penn State was one of only two teams during ITA Kickoff Weekend to defeat two Top 20 opponents to advance out of their regional and one of only two four seed in their regional to advance. The Nittany Lions are one of three teams in Division I with at least two wins over Top 20 opponents this season.
Junior Matt Barry (Lido Beach, N.Y.) and sophomore Aws Laaribi (Rye, N.Y.) each went 2-0 last weekend, with Barry clinching the match point against USF and Laaribi tying the match at 3-3 against Kentucky.
Junior Leonard Stakhovsky (Kiev, Ukraine), senior Tomas Hanzlik (Prague, Czech Republic) and junior Roman Trkulja (Toronto, Canada) all picked up a singles win last weekend. Stakhovsky earned a 5-7, 6-3, 6-3 win against USF's Roberto Cid, ranked 19th. Hanzlik and Trkulja each claimed a win against Kentucky, with Hanzlik clinching the match point.
Barry and sophomore Alex Fennell (Bala Cynwyd, Pa.) won both of their doubles matches, playing at No. 3 against Kentucky and No. 2 against USF. Laaribi and sophomore Christian Lutschaunig (Richboro, Pa.) earned a win at No. 3 against USF to clinch the doubles point. Senior Michael Reilly (Raleigh, N.C.) and Stakhovsky are looking for their first victory at No. 1 doubles, but were leading 6-5 against USF's Cid and Sasha Gozun, ranked 6th, when the match was stopped.
Penn enters the weekend with a 2-0 mark with wins against Drexel and St. Joseph's. Nicolas Podesta won both of his matches in straight sets at No. 1 and Jeremy Court earned two victories at No. 2.
Temple is 1-2 with a win against Villanova and losses against Drexel and St. Joseph's. Santiago Canete is 2-1 at No. 1 and 8-7 overall, while Nicolas Paulus is also 2-1 at No. 2.
Maros Januvka and Filip Stipcic earned a win at No. 1 doubles against Villanova, while Canete and Ondre Cargill combined for a victory at No. 2.
Please check back to GoPSUsports.com throughout the weekend for coverage of the Penn State men's tennis team. Live match updates are available on our Facebook, Penn State Men's Tennis, and Twitter, @pennstateMTEN, pages.