Michigan State University Athletics
Men's Tennis Hosts Brown And Dayton This Saturday
2/18/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Feb. 18, 2004
EAST LANSING, Mich. -
Complete Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
This Week For The SpartansBrown Feb. 21 12 p.m. HomeDayton Feb. 21 5 p.m. Home
No. 56 Michigan State Spartans
(8-1 Overall, 0-0 Big Ten)
Head coach: Gene Orlando
Career (16th Season): 178-211
MSU(13th): 147-171
No. 51 Brown University
(4-0 Overall, 0-0 Ivy League)
Head coach: Jay Harris
This week for the Bears:
Sat. @ Michigan State; Sun. @ Michigan
University of Dayton
(2-5 Overall, 0-0 Atlantic 10)
Head Coach: Steve Brumbaugh
This week for the Flyers:
Fri. @ Valparaiso; Sat. @ Kalamazoo;
Sat. @ Michigan State
NEW RANKINGS: The ITA will release updated rankings Feb. 24 as it is currently on a bi-weekly schedule. A team as well as a new individual poll will be announced which will include the Spartans' upset over No. 8 Vanderbilt and the results from this weekend's competition.
NEXT IN LINE: No. 56 Michigan State welcomes No. 51 Brown and Dayton to East Lansing Saturday, Feb. 21. MSU squares off with the Bears at 12 p.m. while the Flyers invade the MSU Indoor Tennis Facility at 5 p.m.
THE OPPONENTS: Brown brings a 4-0 record into the weekend and is led by No. 42 Jamie Cerretani. The Bears have given up only one point all season as they have swept Buffalo, Rutgers and Rhode Island while defeating Boston College, 6-1. Head coach Jay Harris has become very familiar with the Spartan program as he coached Bowling Green for six seasons from 1996-2002 and faced the Spartans three times during that stretch (Michigan State won all three contests). Saturday's match between the Bears and Spartans will be the first ever meeting.
Dayton, though, has faced MSU three times in the last four seasons with State taking each match, 7-0. The Flyers have posted wins over Sinclair and IUPUI but fell in close battles with Toledo, 4-3, and Ball State, 5-2. They have also lost to Morehead State, Eastern Kentucky, and Texas-Pan American. Dayton will face Kalamazoo College in Kalamazoo Saturday morning before traveling to East Lansing to take on the Spartans.
LAST TIME OUT: Head coach Gene Orlando pulled out the biggest victory of his 13-year Spartan career when his team upset No. 8 Vanderbilt in Columbus, Ohio, 4-3. The Spartans came out firing by winning the doubles point over the Commodores, who were ranked No. 4 the previous week. Then, Andrew Formanczyk and Joseph McWilliams posted singles victories and Eric Simonton sealed it with a three-set triumph at No. 4. Immediately following the win, MSU defeated Xavier, 6-1. State swept all three doubles matches and picked up singles wins from Simonton, McWilliams, Cameron Marshall, Anthony Stefani and Josh Efros.
PARTNER UP: This season, Orlando has put a total of only nine different doubles combinations on the courts and before last weekend he had used only seven tandems. During the 2002-03 campaign, State saw 15 duos play in at least one match.
CAN I HAVE SOME MORE MCWINS WITH THAT?: Freshman Joseph McWilliams sits in second on MSU's singles victory list with a 14-4 record (Andrew Formanczyk leads with a 16-4 mark). McWilliams began the season winning his first six matches of his Spartan career and has already posted a 6-1 record in dual-match competition in 2004.
