The Penn State men's tennis team faced off with teams from four other schools -- Army, St. Bonaventure, Manhattan and Niagara -- at the Penn State classic over the weekend, going 29-1 overall at singles and finishing with 4-0 doubles record.

Not only was it the team's first action, but new head coach Todd Doebler also stepped out on to the courts for his debut. Last year, he was the assistant coach for the men's tennis team at Notre Dame.

He was pleased with his team's play and hopes this is just the beginning of a great season.

"They did and outstanding job, especially playing the earliest match of the day, throughout the day, and finished as one of the last two teams on the court," Doebler said. "Everyone did a great job of taking care of business and it was a consistent effort for the entire team.

The Nittany Lions finished 8-0 in the singles matches and 4-0 in their doubles matches on Friday. Penn State had to get up bright and early to start playing Army again at 9 in the morning.

Due to inclement weather, the tournament had to be a little shorter than planned. On Saturday, a couple of the matches were delayed because of rain, so they were made up yesterday, so Penn State did not play because it played Army on Friday afternoon.

On Saturday, Penn State improved its singles record. Senior Ryan Berger defeated his St. Bonaventure opponent in the morning, but then lost in a close match against his Niagara singles opponent, which so far, has been the only loss for the Lions of the season.

Also playing well this weekend was sophomore Adam Slagter. He overwhelmed his opponent from Army on Friday and proceeded to finish the weekend undefeated.

"I am very pleased in how I played, I hit pretty confidently and I played well with my forehand, which is not like me," Slagter said.

Slagter could have drawn some of that confidence from the encouragement of his teammates.

During the match, the intensity and volume coming not only from the people playing, but also from the other players cheering on their team from the sidelines is noticeable.

"It makes it an exciting, fun, positive atmosphere and also means a lot to know they are playing their own game, but still thinking about how I am doing," Slagter said.

He added that it helps keep in perspective that tennis is a team sport and you are not just playing for yourself, you are playing together.

Most of the players even yell positive remarks to another while they themselves are also playing. Some of them will even yell to another team member three courts away. Berger said that he fed off his teammates' energy, saying that it was very helpful to hear their support, knowing they are behind him 100 percent.

The team will travel to New York on Friday to partake in one of the biggest tournaments of the fall season and Doebler hopes that it treats every match this season with the same level of intensity and use each match as an opportunity to get better.