Once again the No. 67 Penn State men's tennis team experienced how aggressive play can lead to success. However, for the second straight match, the Lions' efforts came up short.

The Lions (6-3) were defeated by No. 56 Virginia Tech yesterday by a score of 5-2. This was the first road test of the season for the Lions, who traveled to Blacksburg, Va., over the weekend to take on the Hokies.

The match could have been a way to rebound from last week's disappointing loss to Ohio State. Luck would not be on the Lions' side in this match, as a few points that could have gone either way were lost.

"We played a lot better this week as a whole," senior Clint Keithley said. "We made the points last longer, but they're a good team. They hit big serves and returned well today."

There seems to be a drought in winning the doubles point for the Lions again, as the team dropped two of the three matches. However, the aggressive styles of senior Roddy Cantey and Malcolm Scatliffe helped the duo to an 8-6 win against Virginia Tech's No. 1 doubles pair of Stephane Rod and Soren Spanner.

"They stepped up and played with a lot of heart and aggressiveness," Penn State men's tennis assistant coach Bill Potoczny said. "Scatliffe carried that over to singles to defeat one of the top-40 singles players in the country."

In the first singles match, Scatliffe earned a 6-3, 6-4 victory against Andreas Laulund, the No. 39 player in the nation, with his hard work and aggressive play. The win against the talented Laulund was Scatliffe's second match in a row where he faced a top opponent. Last week's match against the Buckeyes saw Scatliffe lose a hard-fought match to Jeremy Wurtzman, the No. 2 player in the country. His experience against other teams' No. 1 players is resulting in Scatliffe's best play of the season.

"I had nothing to lose. I just went out and played my game," Scatliffe said. "That was the best I've played so far in college, and I got my best win."

The Lions picked up their only other point of the match when freshman Ryan Berger defeated another freshman, Morten Schultz, by a score of 6-1, 6-0. The match was a good rebound for Berger, who had his season-long unbeaten streak at singles snapped last weekend against Ohio State.

The Lions' first trip to hostile territory did not result in problems with adjusting to the new settings, even though Virginia Tech's courts were painted the school's colors, which is unusual for a tennis court.

Also the facilities allowed for six indoor matches to be held at once, a privilege the Lions have not had at home.

This helped the match run smoothly and quickly, as the fifth and sixth singles matches could be held simultaneously with the first four.