Feb. 20, 2015
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The No. 27 Penn State men's tennis team(3-5) looks to get back on track this weekend as they play two matches. They will travel to Ithaca, N.Y. on Saturday for a noon match against No. 64 Cornell(3-4). They return home on Sunday as they host James Madison(3-4) at the Indoor Tennis Center, which will begin after the women's match.
The Nittany Lions played three tough matches this past weekend at the ITA Men's Team Indoor National Championships in Chicago. Penn State dropped 4-0 results against No. 1 USC and No. 9 Texas and fell 4-2 in a tight match against No. 13 Cal.
Penn State has played five of their eight matches against Top 20 opponents, including wins against No. 19 Kentucky and No. 20 South Florida. They also played No. 37 Virginia Tech on the road.
Against the Golden Bears, junior Matt Barry (Lido Beach, N.Y.) and sophomore Alex Fennell (Bala Cynwyd, Pa.) earned singles wins, including Fennell knocking off Cal's Filip Bergevi, ranked 114th in the ITA Poll. Sophomore Aws Laaribi (Rye, N.Y. ) and junior Leonard Stakhovsky (Kiev, Ukraine) paired up for a win at the top doubles spot against Cal's Gregory Bayane and Chase Melton, ranked 30th.
Laaribi and Stakhovsky also nearly knocked off the nation's top-ranked doubles team against USC. The Nittany Lion duo was leading 6-5 against Yannick Hanfmann and Roberto Quiroz when the match was stopped after the Trojans clinched the doubles point. Laaribi and Stakhovsky are 2-1 this spring.
Barry has five singles wins this spring and nine wins overall. Fennell has three wins, while senior Tomas Hanzlik (Prague, Czech Republic), Laaribi and junior Roman Trkulja (Toronto, Canada) each have two wins.
Stakhovsky, ranked 81st, has two wins this year against ranked opponents, with victories against Old Dominion's Carlos Lopez Villa, ranked 42nd, and USF's Roberto Cid, ranked 19th.
Barry and Fennell are 4-4 this spring, while Trkulja and senior Michael Reilly (Raleigh, N.C.) are also 2-2.
Cornell enters this weekend with a 3-4 mark. They fell 4-3 against No. 50 Princeton last Saturday. Sam Fleck and Stefan Vinti have split time at No. 1 singles, with each having a 2-5 overall record. Colin Sinclair and Chris Vrabel each have four wins.
In doubles, Vrabel and Bernardo Casares Rosa are 3-4 at the top spot.
James Madison is also 3-4 this spring. They defeated George Mason, 5-2, last Friday. Sebastian Salinas and Robert Stirling have each played No. 1 singles. Salinas is 1-2 at No. 1 and 2-5 overall, while Stirling is also 1-2 at No. 1, but 4-2 overall.
There are no live stats available for the Cornell match.
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.