Feb. 10, 2013
BLACKSBURG, Va. - The Penn State men's tennis team dropped a tough 4-3 battle against #46 Virginia Tech. Three Nittany Lions earned singles wins. Penn State lost the doubles point, but got one doubles win.
The 4-3 result was the fourth that the Nittany Lions have dropped this spring against ranked opponents. The tough losses have come against #40 N.C. State, #69 Cornell, #48 Alabama, and, now, #46 Virginia Tech.
C.J. Griffin(Portland, Mich.) and Bryan Welnetz(Laredo, Texas) earned an 8-5 doubles win over Hunter Koontz and Lucas Oliveira. The duo improved to 4-1 this spring.
Virginia Tech's Trimipir Kujundzic and Marko Lovrinovic won a tough 8-7(4) battle against Penn State's Tomas Hanzlik(Prague, Czech Republic) and Roman Trkulja(Toronto, Canada).
Andres Bjerehus and Angelo Contini, ranked 15th in the ITA Poll, claimed an 8-3 win over Penn State's Russell Bader(Austin, Texas) and Guanhua Chen(DaLian, China). The Hokies picked up the doubles point.
Bader won his fourth straight match of the spring as he knocked off Hunter Koontz 6-3, 6-1. Freshman Roman Trkulja topped Trimipir Kujundzic 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. Trkulja tied up the score at 3-3 heading into the final result.
Freshman Matt Barry(Lido Beach, N.Y.) also earned his fourth straight win by defeating Aaron Gomez 6-1, 6-4.
Virginia Tech's Angelo Contini, ranked 56th in the ITA singles poll, claimed a 7-5, 6-2 victory against Tomas Hanzlik.
Chris Young(Melbourne, Australia) snapped a five-game win streak as he fell 6-0, 6-2 to Lucas Oliveira.
Bryan Welnetz took the first set 6-3 against Andres Bjerehus, ranked 29th in the nation, but Bjerrehus came back to take the second set 7-5. Bjerrehus finished the match with a 6-1 win in the third set. He also clinched the match for Virginia Tech with their fourth point.
Penn State is off next weekend and will return to action February 23 at #31 VCU at noon. They will then take on William & Mary at 10 a.m. on February 24th.
Doubles:
1. #15 Bjerehus/Contini(VT) def. Bader/Chen(PSU), 8-3
2. Griffin/Welnetz(PSU) def. Koontz/Oliveira(VT), 8-5
3. Kujundzic/Lovrinovic(VT) def. Hanzlik/Trkulja(PSU), 8-7(4)
Order of Finish: 1,2,3
Singles:
1. #29 Andres Bjerehus(VT) def. Bryan Welnetz(PSU), 3-6, 7-5, 6-1
2. #56 Angelo Contini(VT) def. Tomas Hanzlik(PSU), 7-5, 6-2
3. Lucas Oliveira(VT) def. Chris Young(PSU), 6-0, 6-2
4. Russell Bader(PSU) def. Hunter Koontz(VT), 6-3, 6-1
5. Roman Trkulja(PSU) def. Tripimir Kujundzic(VT), 6-3, 3-6, 6-3
6. Matt Barry(PSU) def. Aaron Gomez(VT), 6-1, 6-4
Order of Finish: 3,4,6,2,5,1