UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The Penn State men's tennis team will send five members of the squad to the ITA All-American Championships this weekend in Tulsa, Okla. The tournament lasts from Sept. 28-Oct. 6 and will be held at The University of Tulsa's Michael D. Case Tennis Center.
The championships begin on Sept. 28 with the Pre-Qualifying Draw, which will last until Sept. 29, when the winners of the draw will move onto the qualifying round. The Qualifying Draw will go from Sept. 30-Oct. 2. The tournament finishes with the Main Draw on Oct. 3-6.
Penn State has four players competing in the Pre-Qualifying Draw. Freshmen Marc Collado Castells (Barcelona, Spain) and Alex Fennell (Bala Cynwyd, Pa.) will be making their college debuts this weekend. Junior Michael Reilly (Raleigh, N.C.), a UNC Wilmington transfer, will make his Penn State debut. Fellow junior Tomas Hanzlik (Prague, Czech Republic) returns to action after a solid sophomore campaign.
Senior Russell Bader (Austin, Texas) will begin his tournament on Monday in the Qualifying Draw. Bader won 22 matches a year ago, including five tournament wins. He starts the season needing ten wins to move into tenth all-time on the career singles wins list at Penn State.
Bader and Reilly will pair up in the Qualifying Doubles Draw. Bader had 13 wins in doubles last year, while Reilly went 5-4 at UNC Wilmington. Other schools represented in the draw include Ohio State, UCLA, USC, Virginia and Georgia.
Castells came to Penn State from Spain and has been ranked in the Top 75 of the Spanish Men's Rankings. Fennell, a Lower Merion high school alum, was rated the 22nd-best prospect in the nation by Tennisrecruiting.net.
Hanzlik won 18 matches a year ago, including a pair of wins in the spring out of the number one spot in the lineup. He earned five tournament wins last fall.
Reilly went 2-1 in singles last year and 4-4 his freshman year.