PSU DIGEST

Lions capture titles at Big Ten tourney

From CDT staff reports

EAST LANSING, Mich. — The Penn State men's tennis team turned in a superb effort on the first day of the Big Ten Indoors Tournament on Friday, capturing titles in both doubles draws.

Sophomore Jason Lee and junior Eddie Bourchier picked up four doubles wins to capture the Flight A doubles crown, while Guillaume St-Maurice and Taylor Cohen turned in a dominant performance to capture the Flight B title.

The Nittany Lions’ four doubles team went 12-2 on Friday.Warren Hardie and Ryan Gormley picked up three wins in Flight A before falling to Lee and Bourchier 8-1 in the finals. Bryan Welnetz and C.J. Griffin also went 1-1 on the day for Penn State.

Bourchier and Lee started off with an 8-2 victory over Michigan State’s John Stratton and Austin Brooks and followed with an 8-4 win over Indiana’s Alex Van Gils and Stephen Vogl. The Nittany Lion duo then buried Illinois’ Marek Czerwinski and Abe Souza 8-1 to cruise into the finals. Lee and Bourchier finished the fall with a 10-1 record in doubles action.

Gormley and Hardie took a similar path as they defeated Indiana’s Santiago Gruter and Josh MacTaggart 8-5 before downing Northwestern’s Andrew McCarthy and Eric Specter 8-3. Gormley and Hardie then defeated Iowa’s Will Vasos and Tommy McGeorge 8-4 to advance to the finals.

St-Maurice and Cohen began their title run with an 8-5 win over Purdue’s Slavko Bijelica and Matt Manasse and advanced to the semifinals by defeating Northwestern’s Mark Schanerman and Chris Jackman 8-3. They advanced to the final with a 9-8 (5) victory over Wisconsin’s Luke Rasow-Kan-tor and Chris Freeman. In the final, St-Maurice and Cohen downed Northwestern’s Spencer Wolf and Sidarth Balaj 8-6 to capture the team’s second title on the day.