University Park, Pa. – The Penn State men's tennis team and head coach Jeff Zinn announced the Nittany Lions' 2022 spring schedule on Wednesday, which features nine home matches in Happy Valley.
"It feels great to finally have a real schedule. After two years, we can go out and play quality opponents inside and outside our region," said Zinn. "We can get back to some semblance of normalcy, start playing tennis again, and do what we all love."
After being limited to conference play for the 2020-21 season, the Nittany Lions return to a complete schedule consisting of nine Big Ten matches and 11 non-conference contests.
Penn State travels to kick off the spring season in Norfolk, Va. against the Old Dominion Monarchs on Jan. 16.
The Nittany Lions will face Cornell on the road, before heading back home to host three consecutive non-conference matchups including a doubleheader on Feb. 4 against Cleveland State and Colgate.
Penn State will then travel to Princeton (Feb. 13). After taking on Delaware and St. Bonaventure at home (Feb. 20) in a doubleheader, the Nittany Lions will hit the road for three more non-conference matchups against Penn (Feb. 26), Columbia (March 5), and a spring break trip to Arizona State (March 12).
The Blue and White then head home to Happy Valley for their first Big Ten matchup of the season against Northwestern (March 25). Continuing in conference play, Penn State will take on Illinois, the reigning Big Ten champions, and Mount St. Mary's in a doubleheader on March 27.
Penn State will travel to Indiana to open April with a weekend of Big Ten play. On Friday, April 1 the Nittany Lions face off against Purdue and on Sunday, April 3, Penn State takes on Indiana.
The Nittany Lions will then make their way back to University Park for their last homestand of the season. In the first of three Big Ten matchups, Penn State plays Ohio State (April 9). The Nittany Lions then welcome Michigan State on April 15 before finishing out their home schedule against Michigan and James Madison in a doubleheader (April 17).
The squad will head to Lincoln, Nebraska to finish off the regular season with a pair of road matches against Nebraska (April 22) and Wisconsin (April 24).
"I think I speak for everybody on the team when about how excited we are for the upcoming season," said Associate Head Coach Paul Tobin. "Last year, we had no out-of-conference matches, so it was very difficult to achieve any ranking points. We're excited about our nonconference lineups and the strength if our schedule. The guys trained hard in the fall and we're hoping to keep that up during winter break. This is a very young team; we will only get better with experience."
Following the regular season, Penn State will compete in the Big Ten Tournament hosted by Wisconsin at the Nielson Tennis Stadium.
Keep up with the team at GoPSUSports.com for coverage of the Penn State men's tennis team during the season, Keep up with the team on Twitter @pennstateMTEN, Instagram @pennstatemtennis and Facebook at Penn State Men's Tennis.
