The last thing the men's tennis team was expecting on its spring break trip to the South was snow. But the Lions encountered wintry conditions all last week and had three of their seven matches cancelled.

"It wasn't a good trip because of the weather, mainly," Coach Holmes Cathrall said. "We didn't get to play as much as we'd like to. You can't control the weather, and they didn't have any indoor facilities for US."

When they did play, the Lions (2-4) had little success, winning just one of four matches.

"In the matches that we played ... we had some good individual performances, but we just didn't put it together as a team," senior Mark Cavalier said. "Not enough people played well at the right times."

Penn State began the trip on Feb. 24 at Virginia Polytechnic Institute with a 7-2 loss. Lions' freshman Jason Rayman had a hand in Penn State's two wins against VPI.

At No. 1 singles, Rayman defeated Mark Bernstine, 6-4, 7-5, and at No. 2 doubles, he combined with Troy Surdick to beat VPI's Todd Koning and Ken Patan, 8-5, in a pro set.

On Feb. 25 and 26, Penn State's matches against No. 21 Duke and, North Carolina were cancelled due to snow.

"Our two biggest matches of the year ... both got cancelled, so it was kind of disappointing," Rayman said. "We really wanted to play those two good teams, because it's good experience for the whole team."

The Lions were back on the courts on Feb. 27 at Anderson College. Junior Dave Schoenly was one of the few bright spots as Anderson rolled, 7-2.

Schoenly came back from a set down to defeat his No. 2 singles opponent, 3-6, 7-5, 6-4, and the No. 1 doubles team of Schoenly and Cavalier had the other Penn State win.

With their 8-1 win over Presbyterian College on Feb. 28, the Lions assured that they would not return winless from their spring trip.

Penn State did have a minor scare against Presbyterian when Rayman suffered a strained shoulder in the middle of his singles match. Rayman continued to play and gutted out the victory, 6-4, 0-6, 7-5.

Cathrall pulled Rayman out of his No. 2 doubles match, pairing Corey Goldstein with Surdick. Rayman was okay after icing down his shoulder.

"It happens once in a while," he said. "I just kind of strained my shoulder and it was really killing me. I just couldn't play doubles."

Penn State finished its spring trip on March 1, losing to Elon College, 7-2. Schoenly and Mark Price won singles matches for the Lions.

The team was scheduled to play Washington and Lee on March 2, but the match was cancelled due to snow and the Lions came home early.

"By the time we got (to Washington and Lee), it was snowing and raining at the same time," Cathrall said, adding sarcastically, "So we had a very beautiful trip."

The men's tennis team will not play again until March 20, when it hosts A-10 rival Temple.

"We have to work on our doubles," Cavalier said. "That's a very important thing, because that's going to win us a lot of matches hopefully."