February 25, 2013 at 3:05 PM
Penn State rebounded nicely from a 6-1 loss to Virginia Commonwealth on Saturday, dominating William & Mary 6-1 on Sunday to improve its record to 5-6 on the year and earn a split in its weekend series.
"Today we came out alot more focused and poised," coach Jeff Zinn said. "We were determined to play well in all facets of the match, and I thought we all played well today."
Penn State almost swept doubles play, as Russell Bader and Guanhua Chen led the way by winning the No. 1 doubles spot, 8-6. Bryan Welnetz and CJ Griffin followed them up by provided the clinching doubles point with their 8-1 victory in the second slot.
Bader and Welnetz in particular were strong for the Nittany Lions on the day. Welnetz knocked off William & Mary's Aaron Chaffey in the No. 1 singles slot, 6-3, 6-4, and Bader grinded out a victory in the second slot, 3-6, 7-6, 10-5.
The duo will continue to be important heading into Big Ten conference conference play, which starts at home next week against No. 4 Ohio State.
"Its great to start off with the best in the conference, the players are looking forward to the challenge," Zinn said.
September 25, 2012 at 12:28 AM
Jeff Zinn, the Penn State men's tennis head coach, discusses a range of topics from his favorite Penn State memory to his go-to place to eat in State College.
September 23, 2012 at 4:16 PM
The Penn State men’s tennis team wrapped up its trip to Charlottesville, Va., today at the UVA Ranked plus One Invitational.
Sophomore Tomas Hanzlik’s charged through the Blue singles bracket and ended Sunday with a 6-1, 6-2 loss in the final match to the No. 8-ranked player in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association poll, Virginia's Alex Domijan.
Senior Bryan Welnetz capped off his rebound performance today after starting his season off with two singles losses. After Welnetz knocked off Louisville’s Michael Lippens yesterday, he won the first set, 6-2, against Radford’s Joe Mills before Mills retired. Welnetz’s victory earned him 13th place in the White singles draw.
Freshman Roman Trkulja was unable to pick up a victory in singles play in his debut tournament for the Nittany Lions. Trkulja fell to Alex van Gils of George Washington and then Nick Sayer of Radford, the No. 74-ranked player in the country. Trkulja was forced to retire from the tournament with an abdominal muscle injury on Saturday.
September 23, 2012 at 10:31 AM
Sophomore Tomas Hanzlik, who was the only Penn State player to pick up a win on day one of the UVA Ranked plus One Invitational, highlighted day two as well.
Hanzlik rallied in both of his singles matches yesterday. He started off the day by defeating Ole Miss’ William Kallberg, who is the No. 56 singles player in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association poll, 0-6, 6-4, 6-4. Hanzlik followed that performance up with a victory over North Carolina State’s Sean Weber 2-6, 6-4, 6-2. Hanzlik will take on Virginia’s Alex Domijan in the Blue singles final today. Domijan currently sits in the No. 8 slot in the singles rankings.
Freshman Roman Trkulja ended his debut tournament with a 0-3 singles record. Trkulja was eliminated from the Blue singles bracket when he fell to the No. 74-ranked player, Nick Sayer from Radford, in straight sets. Memphis’ David O’Hare also defeated Trkulja in the 13th place bracket.
Senior Bryan Welnetz lost to Danil Zelenkov of George Washington, but rebounded with a win in the 13th place bracket against Louisville’s Michael Lippens in straight sets. Welnetz will take on Radford’s Joe Mills later today for the 13th place title in the White singles draw.
The Nittany Lions did not disappoint in doubles play for a second day in a row.
The No. 28 duo of junior Russell Bader and Trkulja knocked off the NC State team of Thomas Weigel and Rafael Paez, 8-4, to claim the Silver doubles consolation third place title.
Hanzlik and Welnetz earned a third place consolation title as well when they took down the pair of Andrew Gores and Stuart DePaolo from North Carolina. The Tar Heel duo was unable to score one point off of Hanzlik and Welnetz in the Red doubles consolation third place match
September 22, 2012 at 10:24 AM
Penn State opened the UVA Ranked plus One Invitational today in Charlottesville, VA.
The Nittany Lions continued to struggle in doubles play on day one of the tournament. Both pairs lost in their first-round matches. The No. 28-ranked duo of junior Russell Bader and freshman Roman Trkulja, who were the top-seed in the Silver doubles bracket, fell to Radford’s pair of Nick Sayer and Thomas Dehaen in a close 9-8 (5) match. Bader and Trkulja then lost 8-4 to North Carolina’s Esben Hess-Olesen and Nelson Vick.
Bader and Trkulja will face North Carolina State’s duo of Thomas Weigel and Rafael Paez in the third-place consolation match.
Trkulja lost his first-round singles match to Alex van Gils of George Washington in three sets 7-5, 6-7, 6-1. He will have a chance to redeem the doubles loss to Sayer when he takes Sayer on tomorrow in the consolation bracket of the Blue singles draw. Sayer is the No. 74-ranked singles player in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association poll.
Bader also lost his singles match to Memphis’ David O’Leary. Senior Bryan Welnetz and sophomore Tomas Hanzlik suffered the same fate as Bader and Trkulja when the No. 57-ranked doubles team of Chris
Cooprider and Kosta Blank from UNC-Wilmington took them down 8-5 in the opening round of the Red doubles bracket.
Middle Tennessee State’s team of Ben Davis and Christoph Lang defeated Welnetz and Hanzlik in the second round. The loss placed Welnetz and Hanzlik in the third place consolation game against Andrew Gores and Stuart DePaolo of UNC, which will take place tomorrow. Welnetz lost in his White singles match 6-4, 6-4 to Rafael Aita from UNC-Wilmington. Aita is ranked No. 55 in the ITA singles poll as well as being named one of the 12 “players to watch” this season. Welnetz will take on Danil Zelenkov of GW tomorrow in the consolation draw.
Hanzlik defeated Memphis’ David O’Hare in his first-round Blue singles match 6-2, 6-0. He will play the second seeded William Kallberg of Ole Miss tomorrow morning. Kallberg is the No. 56-ranked singles
player.
September 16, 2012 at 8:24 PM
After two days of competition, freshman Matt Barry was the only Penn State player left in action at the Farnsworth/Princeton Invitational.
Barry was seeded sixth and took on Columbia’s ninth-seeded Ashok Narayana in the finals of the Cordish draw today. Barry fell in two close sets, 7-5, 6-4 to Narayana, who did not lose a set throughout the bracket.
Barry scraped his hand during the match, which left him bloody, but he said it did not affect his play.
Sophomore Ramy Labna started off the Princeton Invitational in the 14th spot with a loss to Brett Cromwell of Cornell on Friday. Labna was placed in the Pagoda consolation bracket and responded with two wins before ultimately falling to Binghamton’s Elliot Hureau in straight sets in the semifinals.
Junior Chris Young began his year with a first round win in straight sets against Fairleigh Dickinson’s Peter Skvarka in the Lenz draw, but lost in the quarterfinals to Mike Lampa of St. John’s in three sets. Young was placed in the second spot in the New Jersey draw, but was ousted in the round of 64 to Princeton’s top seed, Augie Bloom, in straight sets.
Senior C.J. Griffin went 0-2 with two first round exits in the Tiger and Tiger consolation brackets. Both losses came in straight sets.
Teams from Yale eliminated both of the Nittany Lion’s doubles pairs in the first round on Friday. Barry and Griffin were seeded fifth in doubles “A,” while Labna and Young were the eleventh seed in the doubles “B” group.
Look for the complete recap of the Princeton Invitational in tomorrow’s issue of The Daily Collegian.
September 15, 2012 at 10:18 AM
The Penn State men's tennis team kicked off its 2012-2013 campaign at the Farnsworth/Princeton Invitational yesterday. The Nittany Lions had some up and down moments, but freshman Matt Barry highlighted the team's first day of competition.
Barry, who is competing in his first collegiate tennis tournament, beat Ivan Vereschaga of Buffalo and Ibrahim Shams of Fairleigh Dickinson, without dropping a set. He will continue his singles journey, as the sixth seed, through the Cordish bracket when he takes on Princeton's own, Matt Spindler, in the semifinals later today.
Junior Chris Young, seeded 9th, started off his singles competition for the year by defeating Peter Skvarka of FDU in straight sets in the first round of the Lenz bracket. But, Young lost to St. John's Mike Lampa, 6-2, 2-6, 6-3, in the quarterfinals.
Cornell's Brett Cromwell ousted 14th seeded sophomore Ramy Labna in the first round 6-2, 6-3. Labna rebounded in the consolation bracket by defeating Dom Devaux-Lovell of FDU and later Labna bested Penn's Jason Magnes in his second round match. He will take on Binghamton's Elliot Hureau in the semifinals.
Six-seeded senior C.J. Griffin lost in the first round of the Tiger draw to Yale's Marc Powers, 6-0, 6-3. Griffin was placed in the Tiger consolation bracket and will compete later today.
Teams from Yale eliminated both of the Lion's doubles pairs. In the doubles "A" group, the fifth seeded duo of Barry and Griffin dropped their match, 8-2, to Patrick Chase and John Huang.
Labna and Young, who were slotted as the 11th seed, lost in their doubles “B” match to the pair of Daniel Faierman and Matt Saiontz, 8-3.
March 11, 2012 at 11:56 AM
Flying to Florida for Spring Break is normally a relaxing trip for many, a chance to take in the Sunshine State's beautiful weather and gorgeous beaches.
But the Penn State men's tennis team had their hands full for their trip, with matches to be played against the Central Florida and Southern Florida. Both schools had struggled to begin their seasons, with records of 4-8 and 3-8 respectively, so Penn State looked for a hopeful Florida sweep.
In the end, the Nittany Lions split their two matches, defeating UCF 5-2 but losing a tight one to USF, 4-3.
The UCF match was a good one for the Lions' No. 29 ranked doubles tandem Russell Bader and Jason Lee continued their hot streak, earning an 8-6 victory in doubles, while senior Taylor Cohen and junior Bryan Welnetz sealed the doubles point with a close 8-5 victory soon after.
The Lions would then go on to take four of the six available singles points. Bader, Lee, Cohen and Welnetz all earned singles victories for Penn State. Aside from a dropped set by Cohen, the other three victors did not drop a single set, showing signs of domination against UCF throughout the afternoon.
"We have been working hard to get the team ready for road and outdoor matches," assistant coach Chris Cagle said. "That hard work seems to have paid off. UCF is a strong team."
Unfortunately, the Lions could not complete the Florida sweep, narrowly losing to USF on Friday, 4-3.
Penn State was able to win the doubles point again (with Lee and Bader earning their 64th doubles win in their careers, moving up to seventh all time on Penn State's list), but were overcome by strong singles play from the South Florida Bulls.
The momentum swung in USF's favor when South Florida's Wael Kalani defeated Jason Lee. Kalani won the first set easily, but endured a difficult second set out of Lee that saw a tiebreaker victory. Kalani would finish Lee off in the third set however, winning the match 6-2, 6-7 (7-2), 6-2, tying USF up with Penn State at 2-2.
The remaining three singles matches became an intense affair with the entire match on the line. Welnetz would go down in straight sets to give USF a 3-2 lead, but Bader would not let the Bulls off the hook so easily, defeating his opponent Juan Carlos Acuna in a tough three set match (6-7 (7-5), 6-0, 6-2) to even the score.
The final match would be the defining one for Penn State however, as sophomore Chris Young would lose to USF's Oliver Pramming in three sets, 6-4, 5-7, 6-2, earning USF the hard-nosed victory.
Although two road victories would have been nice, the Lions will be happy to take one down South, and now head back to much colder Ohio to open up Big Ten conference play.
February 11, 2012 at 5:44 PM
The Penn State men's tennis team picked up a pair of victories on Saturday at the Indoor Tennis Center, defeating Buffalo 7-0 in the first match of the day before taking down Bucknell 7-0 in the second match.
Russell Bader, Taylor Cohen, Bryan Welnetz, Tomas Hanzlik, and Christopher Hasyn all picked up two singles wins each on the day. The Lions also won five of their six doubles matches, with the pair of Jason Lee and Bader suffering the only defeat, a 9-8 loss against Bucknell in a tiebreaker.
The win improves Penn State's record to 6-2 on the season. The Lions will play their last match of February next Saturday against Binghamption at 4 p.m. back at the Indoor Tennis Center.
Be sure to check Monday's edition of The Daily Collegian for full coverage of the match.
September 2, 2011 at 4:51 PM
The men’s tennis team has added another former Demon Deacon to the coaching staff after naming former Wake Forest assistant Chris Cagle as the new assistant coach.
Cagle spent the last two years at Wake Forest under new Penn State head coach Jeff Zinn before following Zinn to Happy Valley. Prior to his tenure at Wake Forest, Cagle had a very successful career as a junior tennis coach leading 10 of his players to national junior titles.
Cagle spent his collegiate playing career at UNC-Wilmington where he was the first two-time captain in the program’s history.
Cagle takes over for Brendan Lynch who left Penn State on July 28th to become the assistant coach with the Cornell men’s tennis team. Lynch had just finished his second season at Penn State after graduating in 2009. Lynch still holds the record for most doubles wins in a season with 26 in the 2007-08 season.
Cagle currently serves as the chairman for Junior Competition for North Carolina Tennis as well as being a member of the Southern Tennis Junior Competition Board and the Winston-Salem Tennis, Inc. Board. From 2004-2006 Cagle was a member of the Cystic Fibrosis Tennis Auction Ball Committee. In 2006 he helped to raise over $200,000 as Co-Chair of the ball.
