March 24, 2015
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State men's tennis team is ranked 50th in this week's ITA Poll, released Tuesday. The Nittany Lions dropped eight spots from last week's rankings. Penn State went 2-1 this past weekend to improve to 9-10 and earned their first Big Ten win of the season.
The Nittany Lions, led by Head Coach Jeff Zinn and Assistant Coach Paul Tobin, lost a tight match, 4-3, on Friday at Michigan State, but bounced back on Sunday for a 4-1 win against Michigan and a 7-0 victory against Wagner.
Sophomore Alex Fennell (Bala Cynwyd, Pa.) led the Nittany Lions with three wins this weekend, all at the top singles spot. Fennell knocked off Michigan State's Gijs Linders, ranked 123rd in the ITA Poll, on Friday and then Michigan's Alex Petrone and Wagner's Michal Rolski on Sunday.
Senior Tomas Hanzlik (Prague, Czech Republic) and sophomore Aws Laaribi (Rye, N.Y.) each earned two singles victories. Five other Nittany Lions picked up at least one win.
The Nittany Lions won the doubles point against the Wolverines and Seahawks. Laaribi and junior Leonard Stakhovsky (Kiev, Ukraine), previously ranked 75th in the Poll, earned a win at No. 1 against Michigan, while Barry and sophomore Christian Lutschaunig (Richboro, Pa.) clinched the point with a victory at No. 3.
Against Wagner, Fennell and Lutschaunig combined for a win at No. 1, while sophomore Marc Collado (Barcelona, Spain) and junior Roman Trkulja (Toronto, Canada) won at No. 3.
The Nittany Lions head to Illinois this weekend to continue their Big Ten slate. They will take on No. 3 Illinois(15-3, 3-0) at 4 p.m. on Friday and No. 19 Northwestern (12-5, 2-1) on Sunday.
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