Spinner healthy for EMU match

By JERE GISH
Collegian Sports Writer

Ivan Spinner will return to the men's tennis team lineup today for the first dual match of the season with Eastern Michigan.

Spinner, Penn State's No. 1 player, missed the Penn State Winter Classic on Feb. 18-19, due to a stomach virus that sidelined him for over a week.

Coach Jan Bortner said Spinner is 100 percent healthy and ready to go for the 3:30 p.m. meeting today at the Penn State Tennis Club.

He said the senior has practiced well the last couple of days and just needs to regain his "match toughness."

"I feel good, pretty confident," Spinner said. "I feel really healthy."

Penn State (2-1) will face a young Eastern Michigan (1-3) squad, which comes into the match with no seniors and one junior. The Lions are coming off an impressive showing at the Classic, where they swept all four singles and both doubles divisions,

Bortner described Eastern Michigan, which is led by sophomore Derrick Dabbs, as an "unknown factor." He said the teams are not familiar with each other, which will affect the players' strategy.

"Our players need to make adjustments during the match," Bortner said.

Bortner said the team worked hard on doubles play while gearing up for the match during practice this week.

"I feel more confident in our singles lineup than our doubles lineup," Bortner said. "We played a lot of doubles (in practice)."

The team is still experimenting with doubles combinations.

"We are trying to find the best combinations for the Big Ten championships," Bortner said.

But Eastern Michigan comes first, and it will come to Happy Valley ready to play.

"They're excited to play a team from the Big Ten," Bortner said, "They'll be gunning for us."