University Park, Pa. – Penn State men's tennis (7-3) will travel to Ann Arbor, Mich. to take on the fifth-ranked Wolverines (11-3) Saturday, Feb. 27 at noon at the Varsity Tennis Center to kick off Big Ten play. This will also be the Nittany Lion's first road dual contest.
Michigan owns a 27-10 all-time advantage over the Blue and White. However, when the two programs met last season, the Nittany Lions upset No. 16 Michigan, 5-2 at the Indoor Tennis Center.
"Michigan will have a big crowd and they are going to be loud," head coach Jeff Zinn said. "I felt like Sunday [against Penn] was our best match but it took too long to get to our best match. We have to learn from that match and bring it every time we play. [Michigan] is a top-five team in the country and we have to play out best if we want to beat a team of that caliber."
FOLLOW ALONG
LAST TIME OUT
Penn State closed out its eight-match homestand with contests against Liberty, Penn and Bucknell.
On Friday, Feb. 21, the team dropped a tough decision to Liberty, 5-2 after losing the doubles point and failing to come back in singles.
The Nittany Lions quickly rebounded on Sunday, Feb 23 though, to beat Penn, 4-3, and shutout Bucknell, 7-0.
SENIOR SUCCESS
The No. 46 senior duo of Christan Lakoseljac and Christos Antonopoulos currently have an overall record of 6-1 this spring at the top lineup position.
This past weekend the pair went 1-1 with one match going unfinished. They defeated Dmitry Shatalin and Kevin Zhu of Penn, 6-3.
SCOUTING THE WOLVERINES
Michigan has defeated four top-10 teams to start the season, including No. 4 Texas to move onto the Semifinals at ITA National Team Indoor Championships.
The Wolverines three losses were all handed out by top-25 teams, including No. 1 USC.
Andrew Fenty and Mattias Siimar are the No. 2-ranked doubles pair in the country. They currently have a record of 10-2 at the top spot in the lineup.
The Wolverines' roster also features four ranked singles players. Fenty holds the team's highest ranking on the team at No. 17, followed by No. 32 Ondrej Styler, No. 87 Connor Johnston and No. 112 Siimar. Both Fenty and Siimar are coming off losses.
NEXT UP
The Nittany Lions will return home to face Princeton on Friday, March 6 at 5 p.m. in their second-to-last non-conference matchup of the season.
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 Penn State Men's Tennis and follow our twitter @pennstateMTEN.