PSU senior player Barry grabs conference honor

Senior Mark Barry has been selected as the Big Ten Men's Tennis Athlete of the Week for two recent performances. With the Nittany Lions holding their first national ranking of the season at No. 53, Barry helped propel Penn State into the top 40 with a 3-0 weekend against No. 49 Virginia Tech and Duquesne.

Barry gutted out a tough three-set victory (7-6, 4-6, 6-3) over the No. 85 Arvid Puranen of Virginia Tech at the top singles spot and improved to a league-leading 8-1 record at No. 1 singles.

"Mark Barry did a great job for us," said head coach Bill Potoczny. "Not only did he beat one of the best singles players on the east coast in Puranen, he did it when the team needed it most. He also did a great job in his doubles matches, defeating some truly outstanding players."

In doubles action, Barry teamed with freshman Adam Slagter to go undefeated; the tandem downed Duquesne's Devon Peightal and Adam Townsend, 8-3, to help claim the doubles point and earn the Lions ninth shutout in 11 matches with a 7-0 home win over the Dukes on Friday. The Penn State pair went on to beat Virginia Tech's Nicolas Delgado and David Rosenfeld, 8-5, the following day. The pair is now 9-0 this season at the No. 1 doubles position.