Lions blank RMC

By DAN HIRSCH
Collegian Sports Writer

The men's tennis team used its depth to control an overmatched Robert Morris team, 7-0, yesterday at the Penn State Tennis Club.

Without its two top players, the Colonials (6-8) lost to a balanced attack of 12 different Lions as Penn State improved its record to 7-2.

"When we can, we like to give some of the young guys the experience," Lion Coach Jan Bortner said. "Guys not usually playing got in the lineup."

Senior Ivan Spinner, the Lions' No. 1 singles player, played only doubles. The team of Spinner and junior Doug Schoenly was victorious over the Colonials' Jason Gray and Chris O'Brien, 8-0.

Junior Chris Cahill moved into Spinner's singles position, where he defeated Gray in straight sets, 6-0, 6-0.

"I was excited to move up," Cahill said. "I knew I had to play hard to win."

Bortner was pleased that the team didn't let down after early leads in each of its matches.

"Overall, I thought it was a good, solid effort," Bortner said. "Sometimes when you win the first set, you get sloppy. We didn't want to do that."

The Lions had been working on playing more aggressively in their doubles matches during practice this week. And Bortner said he felt that all the hard work had been paying off.

"We wanted to have a little more reckless abandon in our doubles play," Bortner said. "We did pretty well with that today."

While Colonials Coach Tom Fleming said he was not expecting to win, he was still impressed by the Lions' talent.

"They're a really strong team." Fleming said. "They're the best team we play, and we play a lot of good ones."

The Lions have been on a roll lately, winning their last four meets. Senior Brett Englesberg -- who beat Brian Miklavic yesterday, 6-0, 6-1 -- said that he is looking forward to this weekend's matches against Pittsburgh and Indiana.

"Everyone has been playing well," Englesberg said. "We've been building confidence going into the next couple of weeks."