If the Penn State men's tennis team was nervous about playing at the site of the U.S. Open, it did not show it.

Penn State started and ended strong as it posted a 2-1 dual match record this past weekend at the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championships in Flushing, N.Y. The tournament gave the Nittany Lions a chance to face some of the best competition in the east. The team met the challenge well because of the effort it shows each day, said freshman Malcolm Scatliffe.

"We had a tough loss to Brown, which I think we could have won," Scatliffe said. "We bounced back against Columbia and were able to win. It is all because of the hard work and practice we put in every day."

Penn State was able to sandwich that loss to Brown between victories over Cornell and Columbia to end the tournament on a winning note.

All of Friday's matches were shortened due to inclement weather. Penn State, seeded No. 6, made the match even shorter against No. 11 Cornell with a 4-0 sweep.

After taking the doubles point, the Lions' trio of freshmen secured the victory. Nate Emge took home the victory in No. 1 singles. His performance was followed by a win for Scatliffe at No. 3 singles and a victory at No. 4 singles by Mark Barry.

The freshmen were key for Penn State, with Barry, Emge and Scatliffe combining for a 6-3 record in singles throughout the tournament. The combination of Barry and Emge went undefeated in three doubles matches and Barry was the only Lion to go undefeated for the day.

"First of all they are all exceptional players," Penn State assistant men's tennis coach Bill Potoczny said. "They are very committed to the games and to the team. They show maturity you usually don't see out of freshmen. It shows a lot about the upperclassmen as well, for letting the freshmen know that this is how things are done at Penn State."

Penn State closed out the weekend with a 5-2 win Sunday against No. 7 Columbia. Once again, Penn State was able to take the doubles point, as the team took all three doubles matches. Emge and junior Roddy Cantey would suffer defeats at No. 1 and No. 2 singles, respectively, to put the Lions behind.

That was all the team needed to light its fire. Scatliffe, Barry, Frakes and junior Todd Stecko would claim victory in all of the matches from No. 3 to No. 6 singles.

The only sore spot for the Lions this weekend was the loss on Saturday to No. 3 seed Brown. Penn State could not hold up to its talented opponent, losing 6-1. The Lions fell behind in the match and could not make up the ground later in the day.

"The big difference was the way we came out [for the game]," Potoczny said. "We started off slow against Brown and once the team has momentum it's hard to take it away from them."

Penn State's only point was a win by Barry at No. 4 singles. Despite the lopsided score, Scatliffe said the team could have pulled it out, adding that Penn State suffered a lot of bad breaks, faced some tiebreakers and had long matches that made it closer than the final score indicated.