UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Although the Penn State men's tennis team is composed of only three freshmen this season, there is much reason to believe that the future of the program is in good hands. The freshmen trio of Sam Bossem, Miko Eala and Bora Sengul are learning on the court and taking their own experience prior to Happy Valley to help them learn and grow on Penn State's campus.
The young Nittany Lions have high goals for their time in the Blue and White.
"We want to all have the best year that [this program] has had," Bossem said. "We want to have a breakthrough year because it's so different playing for yourself and playing for the team."
Bossem, a freshman from the United Kingdom, was actually an established tennis player with a decorated playing career before he stepped foot on Penn State's campus.
And although he achieved a No. 7 UK junior ranking and earned gold medals for Great Britain in the European Maccabi Games, Bossem still acknowledges the challenges presented from adjusting to life as a Division I athlete during a global pandemic.
"I feel like coming to college matured us quite a lot because you don't have people to fall back on as much," Bossem said.
As Bossem's roommate and freshman counterpart Bora Sengul points out, however, the silver lining to such a chaotic freshman year has been the friendships that he and his teammates have developed with one another.
"I'm getting tighter with Sam and Miko because I live with them," Sengul said. "Now, I feel part of a bond and I feel part of a group."
"I think it was good that me and Bora came in at the same time, because we had similar classes, similar schedules and none of us knew what college was like at the time," Bossem said. "We really helped each other out."
Prior to their Penn State debuts, Sengul and Eala had their fair share of success on the tennis court as well.
While attending Okyanus Koleji (Ocean College) in Istanbul, Turkey, Sengul won two world championships (2017 and 2019) and achieved a career-high ITF ranking of 65 and ATP doubles ranking of 1563.
From Manacor, Spain, Eala has already made an impact in his rookie season, leading the team in singles wins with 11. Eala is no stranger to success as he won the doubles title at the Lousada Junior Cup II and captured the singles title in the 2019 Hellenic Bank Masters Tennis Academy tournament.
Despite all of these achievements, Sengul and Eala recognize the high level of commitment and work ethic that is required to take their game to the next level and achieve success at Penn State.
"You really have to push yourself a lot more," Sengul said. "The motivation has to come from within you, aside from relying on your coaches to push you all the time."
"We're getting older and we realize that we're responsible for our improvement," Eala added.
In fact, while this promising group is focused on finishing the season strong, it is also looking past the hurdles that it has previously overcome, with the prospect of helping the Penn State program reach new heights resonating amongst them.
