March 17, 2015
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State men's tennis team moved up six spots in this week's ITA Poll, released Tuesday. The Nittany Lions are 7-9 after winning two matches this past weekend at the USF Spring Break Tournament in Tampa, Fla. The blue and white get back into Big Ten conference action this weekend.
The Nittany Lions, led by Head Coach Jeff Zinn and Assistant Coach Paul Tobin, knocked off No. 73 VCU, 4-1, and No. 63 Tulane, 4-2, this past weekend. They also dropped a 4-3 decision to UNC Wilmington.
Penn State revenged a loss against VCU the previous weekend by defeating the Rams this time. The Nittany Lions dropped the doubles point, but got wins at the bottom four singles positions from junior Matt Barry (Lido Beach, N.Y.), senior Tomas Hanzlik (Prague, Czech Republic), sophomore Nika Dolidze (Tbilisi, Georgia) and sophomore Marc Collado (Barcelona, Spain).
Against UNC Wilmington, the Nittany Lions claimed the doubles point with wins by sophomore Aws Laaribi (Rye, N.Y.) and Stakhovsky at No. 1 and Barry and sophomore Christian Lutschaunig (Rye, N.Y.) at No. 3.
In singles, Stakhovsky won at No. 2 and Hanzlik earned a victory at No. 4. Penn State won a set at each of the other four positions, but could not close out those matches.
In the final match of the weekend against Tulane, sophomore Alex Fennell (Bala Cynwyd, Pa.) and senior Michael Reilly (Raleigh, N.C.) won at No. 2, but Penn State lost the doubles point. Stakhovsky, Hanzlik, Laaribi and junior Roman Trkulja (Toronto, Canada) picked up singles wins.
Penn State resumes Big Ten play this weekend. They head to Michigan State on Friday for a Noon match. They return home on Sunday to face Michigan at Noon and non-conference opponent Wagner at 6 p.m.
Please check back to GoPSUsports.com 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.