Jan. 6, 2015
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State men's tennis team will open the spring season ranked No. 26 in the ITA Poll, released Tuesday. It marks the highest ranking to start a season in program history. Sophomore Nika Dolidze (Tbilisi, Georgia) and senior Tomas Hanzlik (Prague, Czech Republic) are ranked No. 59 in the ITA Doubles Poll.
"It's a very exciting time for the men's tennis team with the preseason rankings that came out," said Head Coach Jeff Zinn. "I feel that's about where we were slotted to be, 26 is a good starting spot for us. That first tournament of the year is going to be a great indicator of the early part of the season with the other three teams ranked in the Top 30. That's going to be an exciting tournament to start the season."
The Nittany Lions are coming off a 2014 campaign in which they went 22-6 overall and 8-3 in the Big Ten, setting program records for both win totals. They also knocked off a program-high 11 ranked teams and went 15-0 at home on their way to the sixth NCAA Tournament appearance in program history, where they advanced to the second round. Junior Leonard Stakhovsky (Kiev, Ukraine) was selected for the NCAA Singles and Doubles Tournaments. Graduate Russell Bader (2010-14) joined him in the doubles tournament.
The team's previous highest ranking to start a season was No. 38 in 2009 and before 2014 the team's highest ranking in any poll was No. 34. In 2014, the Nittany Lions were ranked in the ITA Top 25 for seven straight weeks, including a highest ranking of 16th on April 8 and 24th in the final ITA Poll.
Penn State will have some more opportunities against ranked opponents in 2015 as 15 foes are ranked in the ITA Top 75. They will also take on nine opponents that reached the 2014 NCAA Tournament.
Dolidze and Hanzlik had their best win of the fall come against Clemson's Alejandro Augusto and Hunter Harrington, who are ranked 60th in the poll, at the USTA Clay Court Invitational in Orlando, Fla.
"Having Nika and Tomas ranked Top 60 in doubles shows the quality of our depth in doubles for our team," said Zinn. `They had a strong fall, we're excited that they got ranked. Hopefully some of the other teams we have competing in doubles this spring will also get a national ranking."
Penn State opens the 2015 season on January 23 against No. 18 Kentucky in Lexington, Ky. as part of the ITA Kickoff Weekend. The following day, the Nittany Lions will face either No. 19 Vanderbilt or No. 22 South Florida.
"It would've been nice to be in the Top 25," said Assistant Coach Paul Tobin. "But there's a lot of teams that have done well in the fall and deserve their position. This is the first time our program has gone into the spring season ranked this high. That is a huge accomplishment in itself."
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