The Penn State tennis club overcame a foreign surface to finish 14th at the Daytona Cup among 34 teams during spring break.

The tournament lasted from March 11-13 and was held at the Florida Tennis Center. The first two days were a pool setup, which determined the brackets for the final day. Over the course of the two days, Penn State lost to UCLA, but defeated the University of Alabama, Georgia Tech and Sam Houston State, earning a spot in the silver bracket.

The hard court facilities at Penn State were different from the Har-Tru surfaces at Daytona and hindered how the club performed. The road in the silver bracket proved to be tumultuous, as Penn State lost to eventual silver champion Florida International University. In the consolation match held later that day, the squad was knocked off by California.

California and Penn State traded blows in the men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles, and woman's doubles. California prevailed in the decisive mixed doubles match, giving itself the 3-2 edge and the victory.

The synthetic clay surface is notably slower than what many Penn State players are used to, and actually hurts their playing style.

"We adjusted pretty well," club president Thad Gelsinger said. "It plays a bit slower, which hurt us because we're pretty hard serves. This gave them a better chance to return against us."

Junior Matt Black and sophomore Lee Frank were two of the big-time contributors to Penn State's cause on the A side. They competed in all of the singles matches, helping their team finish fifth in their bracket and 14th overall.

The B side got to compete in Florida as well. It placed fifth in the bronze bracket and in the top 25 of the tournament.

The 34 schools present made this the largest showing ever at this event. It was also Penn State's largest competition of the year. In preparation for club's biggest event of the season, the team arrived in Daytona a couple of days before the competition to make several adjustments, including the court surface and the warm weather, both drastic changes from Happy Valley.

On March 27, Penn State gets to play on its more comfortable surface and under more familiar conditions when it hosts Indiana.