April 22, 2015
Big Ten Tournament Central
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The No. 48 Penn State men's tennis team will take on Michigan on Thursday at 2 p.m. in the First Round of the Big Ten Tournament. The tournament is being played in Urbana, Ill., hosted by the University of Illinois. The Nittany Lions are the sixth overall seed in the tournament, matching up against the 11th-seeded Wolverines.
The Nittany Lions, led by Head Coach Jeff Zinn and Assistant Coach Paul Tobin, finished the regular season with a 15-14 overall record and a 5-6 mark in the Big Ten.
Penn State gets a re-match against Michigan after winning 4-1 at home on March 22. The winner of the Penn State/Michigan match will face No. 23 Minnesota on Friday at 2 p.m. Minnesota shared the Big Ten regular season title with Illinois and Ohio State after going 10-1 in conference play.
The blue and white earned two Big Ten road wins this past weekend to hold a winning record for the first time since February 13. The Nittany Lions won a pair of 4-2 matches at Nebraska, on Friday, and No. 66 Iowa, on Sunday.
Senior Tomas Hanzlik (Prague, Czech Republic) and junior Roman Trkulja (Toronto, Canada) each earned two singles wins. Hanzlik is riding a six-match win streak, while Trkulja has won five straight matches.
Hanzlik leads the team with 16 victories this spring, while junior Matt Barry (Lido Beach, N.Y.) has 13. Sophomore Aws Laaribi (Rye, N.Y.) and Trkulja each have 11 wins.
Barry and senior Michael Reilly (Raleigh, N.C.) improved to 8-0 as a doubles pair this past weekend, while Laaribi and sophomore Christian Lutschaunig (Richboro, Pa.) won both of their doubles matches.
The Wolverines are 6-16 overall and 3-8 in the Big Ten. Last weekend, Michigan dropped a 5-2 result at Indiana on Friday, but bounced back to defeat Purdue, 4-2, on Sunday.
Alex Petrone and Michael Zhu each have one win while splitting time at the top singles spot. Zhu is 7-5 at the No. 2 position. Runhao Hua is 10-7 this spring, while Alex Knight has eight victories.
Petrone and Zhu are ranked 78th in the ITA Poll with a 6-10 mark, while playing mostly at the top doubles position. Knight and Hua also have six doubles victories.
Please check back to GoPSUSports.com for more coverage of the Penn State men's tennis team at the Big Ten Tournament. Updates are also available on our Facebook, Penn State Men's Tennis, and Twitter, @pennstateMTEN, pages.