Nov. 5, 2015
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The Penn State men's tennis team kicked off their last fall tournament weekend today at the USTA Collegiate Clay Courts Tournament in Orlando, Fla. The Nittany Lions spilt their squad this weekend, bringing five to Florida. The five men competing picked up some big wins Thursday.
The day began with a strong showing in the Gold Draw from the doubles pairing of Matt Barry (Lido Beach, N.Y.) and Aws Laaribi (Rye, N.Y.), 8-4 winners over University of Central Florida's Nico De Fraia and Mariano Porter.
"Aws Laaribi and Tomas Hanzlik played extremely well under some hot and humid conditions," said Head Coach Jeff Zinn, "They are showing such a high level of play and we hope to see that continue on throughout the weekend to continue taking down these skilled doubles teams."
The other Penn State doubles pair of Marc Collado (Barcelona, Spain) and Nika Dolidze (Tbilisi, Georgia) drew a bye in the Round of 16 and will start play in the quarterfinals Friday.
One-seed in the Garnet Draw, Tomas Hanzlik (Prague, Czech Republic), had a three-set takedown of UCF's Nico De Fraia to continue into the Round of 16 Friday.
Junior Laaribi continued his successful day defeating Miami's Nile Clark, 6-4 and 7-5, in his first singles match of the weekend. Laaribi will continue on to the Round of 16 in the Gold Draw on Friday.
Collado fell short in his first singles match of the weekend. Junior Collado fell, 6-2, 6-0, to seven-seed Gabriel Friedrich from USC. Collado will continue from the Gold Draw into the singles consolation rounds on Friday.
Senior Barry, eight-seed in the Gold Draw, lost 6-3, 6-2 in an upset to Florida Gulf Coast University's Ricky Ventura. Barry will continue on in the singles consolation rounds in Friday with Collado.
Dolidze started his weekend with a tough loss to UCF's Jack Thiessen. The long, three-set match ended with a 7-6, 2-6, 6-1 loss for the junior. Dolidze will continue singles matches Friday in the consolation rounds.
The USTA Collegiate Clay Courts Tournament will continue until Sunday at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Fla. ESPN3 will have live coverage of select matches available. Live updates can be found on the tournament's Twitter page (@2015_CCI).
The rest of the spilt squad will begin play tomorrow at the Big Ten Men's Indoor Championships in Iowa City, Iowa.
Please check back to GoPSUSports.com throughout the weekend for more coverage of the Penn State men's tennis team. Follow Penn State men's tennis on Facebook at facebook.com/pennstatemenstennis and on twitter @pennstateMTEN.
USTA Collegiate Clay Courts Day 1
Singles Gold Draw (Round of 32):
[7] Gabriel Friedrich (USC) def. Marc Collado (PSU), 6-2, 6-0
Aws Laaribi (PSU) def. Nile Clark (Miami), 6-4, 7-5
Ricky Ventura (FGU) def. [8] Matt Barry (PSU), 6-3, 6,2
Singles Garnet Draw (Round of 32):
[1] Tomas Hanzlik (PSU) def. Nico De Fraia(UCF) , 6-1, 2-6, 6-4
Jack Thiessen (UCF) def. Nika Dolidze (PSU), 7-6, 2-6, 6-1
Doubles Gold Draw (Round of 16):
Matt Barry/Aws Laaribi (Penn State) def. Nico De Fraia/Mariano Porter (UCF), 8-4
Doubles Garnet Draw (Round of 16):
Collado/Dolidze -- BYE