January 25, 2017 - UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; The Nittany Lion men's tennis team will travel to Chapel Hill, North Carolina this weekend to open up its spring slate at the ITA Kickoff Weekend hosted by the University of North Carolina. Play at this location will begin on Friday, January 27 and conclude on Sunday, January 29 in the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center.
The blue and white will begin the weekend with a contest against Vanderbilt on Friday.
"As a staff we are excited to start the season off against some great competition," said head coach Jeff Zinn. "All four teams were in the NCAA team tournament last spring, so it will immediately give us an idea of where we stand to start the season. I don't always start so strong but I have been reading a lot about Tom Izzo's philosophy about building his teams and I like that he tries to put his players against teams that are outstanding early in the year to get them ready and focused for the Big Ten season. You never know how your team will respond to the challenge but I think we are ready to give it our best shot."
"I'm excited to finally be starting our season," said associate coach Paul Tobin. "Vanderbilt has six matches under their belt already, mostly in the win column. If you look at each position we can definitely go toe to toe with them, we just have to play our best and come together to win the doubles point. We have been mixing up our doubles pairings and the chemistry we've been looking for is back."
The Lions found success during the fall tournament season in several players. Zach Lieb (Newtown Square, Pa.) played very well throughout the fall season, earning one of the best records on the team at 7-2. Freshman Christian Lakoseljac (King City, Ontario, Canada) and sophomore transfer Henry Gordon (New Braunfels, Tx.) also showed potential for a strong spring season. As a team, Penn State finished the fall with a 54-49 record in singles and a 28-18 record in doubles play.
Two newcomers will suit up in the blue and white this spring for the Lions. Christos Antonopoulos joins the team as a freshman hailing from Athens, Greece and Mayson Xue (San Ramon, Calif.), a freshman transfer, comes to Penn State from Army West Point.
Following this weekends contest, the Nittany Lion's will return to Happy Valley for the first home matches of the season on Saturday, February 4 and Sunday, February 5. The Lions will be hosting Cleveland State and Lehigh on Saturday and Cornell and St. Bonaventure on Sunday.
Be sure to check back to GoPSUsports.com and our social media pages throughout the weekend for updates from the ITA Kickoff Weekend!
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