September 21, 2016 - UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. ââ'¬" The Penn State men's tennis team will kick start the fall tournament circuit for the 2016-17 season this weekend in a split invitational on the road. The Lions are headed to the Ivy-Plus Invitational, co-hosted by Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania. Both locations will begin play this Friday, September 23 and continue through the weekend concluding on Sunday, September 25. The majority of the Nittany Lions will be headed to Philadelphia while a smaller group travels to Princeton, New Jersey.
"We are excited as a staff and as a team to have everyone involved this weekend to compete in the prestigious Princeton Ivy Plus Tournament," said head coach Jeff Zinn. "The tournament consists of many teams from different conferences in the country (SEC, Ivy League, MAC, Colonial, Big Ten). The competition will be very strong and it's a good first tournament to get everyone started for the new season. As a staff, we are looking for players to stand out in their play and give us reasons to play them in future tournaments and competitions."
Last season, Penn State men's tennis finished with a solid 21-8 record. This included six BIG10 wins and 14 victories on their home court.
The Ivy-Plus Invitational is a split tournament, with locations at both Princeton University in Princeton, NJ and the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA. In Princeton, this tournament will be held in the Cordish Family Pavilion and Lenz Tennis Center. In New Jersey, play will occur in the Hecht Tennis Center.
Aws Laaribi (Rye, NY), returning to Penn State for his final year, led the team last season with a record of 20-14. Also returning for the blue and white is senior Marc Collado (Barcelona, Spain) who achieved an overall record of 10-5 last season. Senior David Kohan (Sydney, Australia) is returning this year after an 8-4 season. Nika Dolidze (Tbilisi, Georgia) and Christian Lutschaunig (Richboro, PA) are also returning as seniors this season for the Nittany Lions.
Constant De La Bassetiere (Reims, France) returns as a sophomore this year following an impressive 15-5 season last year. Also returning as sophomores this season will be Ben and Zach Leib (Newtown Square, PA) with 19-9 and 5-4 records respectively. Matt Galush (Cary, NC) will also be returning following an undefeated 4-0 doubles record last season.
Four newcomers will don the blue and white this season including transfer sophomore Henry Gordon (New Braunfels, TX), Gabriel Nemeth (Brasilia, Brazil), Noah Sutter (New York, NY), and Christian Lakoseljac (King City, Ontario, CA).
Following this weekend's tournament, the Nittany Lion's next conquest will be October 7-9 at the Notre Dame Invitational in Notre Dame, IN. Check back to GoPSUsports and our social media pages throughout this weekend for coverage of the Lions at the Ivy-Plus Invitational!
Keep up with the Penn State men's tennis team at GoPSUsports.com. For continued updates throughout the year, make sure to `like' our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/pennstatemten and follow our twitter @pennstateMTEN!