Men's Tennis Hosts Michigan In Mid-Week Match

April 7, 2009

EAST LANSING, Mich. - Michigan State men's tennis will host Big Ten rival Michigan Wednesday, April 8, with play beginning at 3 p.m. This marks the third straight home match for the Spartans and the seventh Big Ten face-off. MSU is currently 12-9 overall and 0-6 in conference play.

Spartan recap
MSU dropped a Big Ten match to rival No. 51 Penn State, 5-2, Sunday at the MSU Indoor Tennis Facility.

The MSU pairing of sophomore John Stratton (Monroeville, N.J.) and senior Alex Forger (Okemos, Mich.) defeated Eddie Bourchier and Ryan Gormley, 8-5, at the No. 2 position for the Spartans only win in doubles action.

Junior Jason Norville (Farmington Hills, Mich.) picked up a 6-3, 7-5, victory over Gormley at the No. 6 spot while freshman Ronnie Hulewicz (Tequesta, Fla.) defeated Guillaume St-Maurice, 6-1, 7-6(3), at the No. 5 position.

Freshman Sensations
Freshmen Austin Brooks (Houston, Texas) and Hulewicz have started their Spartan careers strong, proving to be assets to the Green and White. Brooks has mainly played at No. 3 and No. 4 singles this season and currently stands at 8-10 overall after falling to Penn State's Eddie Bouchier this past weekend. His last singles win came against Illinois State, where he won 7-6 (8-4), 6-4. His last doubles win came with sophomore John Stratton (Monroeville, N.J.) over Minnesota doubles opponents of Dino Bilankov and Tobias Wernet, 8-7.

Hulewicz has tallied an impressive 17-3 singles record, playing at mainly No. 5 singles. At No. 5, Hulewicz stands at 13-3. The 17-3 tally is the team-best so far this season; the three losses came against Iowa, Cleveland State and Ohio State. He is 4-2 against Big Ten opponents and before falling to Iowa, Hulewicz was riding an 11-match win streak. Hulewicz is also 8-2 in his last ten matches. He also picked up the only Spartan singles wins during MSU's three matches in California over spring break.

Senior Leadership
Seniors John Allare (Maineville, Ohio), Scott Rasmussen (Moraga, Calif.) and Forger have all made substantial impacts on the team this season.

Allare is ranked 22nd regionally and holds an overall record of 10-10 in singles play, posting a 5-6 record at No. 1 and 5-4 at No. 2. Including fall play, Allare is 20-13. The doubles tandem of Allare and Norville has posted a 14-9 record overall, playing at both the No. 1 and No.2 positions. They started the season with a nine-match winning streak before falling to the Santa Clara doubles team of Jay Wong and Kenzo Hirakawa-Wong. The pair has defeated two ranked doubles teams; No. 55 Christian Bierich and Nikita Zotov of Iowa, 9-8, and No. 41 Balazs Novak and Steven Moneke of Ohio State, 8-7.

Forger, ranked regionally at No. 27, currently holds a 8-10 dual season record, going 3-5 at the No. 2 position and 5-5 at No. 1. His most recent win came against Northwestern when he defeated Tobias Reitz, 6-4, 7-6, at the No. 2 position. Forger and sophomore Clark Richardson (Leawood, Kansas) have teamed together to go 6-3 in doubles play; Forger has compiled a 4-4 record with Rasmussen in doubles action as well. He has teamed with Stratton in the past three matches to post a 1-3 record, most recently defeating Ryan Gormley and Eddie Bourchier, 8-5.

Rasmussen has an overall record of 16-18 and 9-11 in dual play. Three of his wins came at the No. 3 position, two at the No. 2 spot and the remaining four wins at the No. 4 spot. With doubles partners, Brooks, Forger and junior Brendan Kinkopf (Cleveland, Ohio), he has tallied a 7-6 record; three wins have come with Kinkopf and four with Forger. His most recent doubles win came with Forger when the pair defeated its Tulsa opponents at the No. 3 position.

Filling the Lineup
Kinkopf, Norville, Richardson and Stratton have substantially contributed to the depth of the Spartan lineup.

Kinkopf is 4-0 at No. 6 singles, and 4-2 in doubles action, partnering with Hulewicz, Rasmussen and Richardson. Norville has tallied a 9-7 record, primarily at the No. 4 and No. 5 singles positions, and stands at 11-7 with Allare in doubles play. Stratton is 4-3 at the No. 6 and No. 3 singles positions and has, most recently, teamed with Brooks to defeat the doubles teams of Reinoud Haal and Greg Holm of Iowa and Dino Bliankov and Tobias Wernet of Minnesota. Richardson has gone 3-0 at the No. 5 singles position and is 7-4 in doubles play with partners Forger, Hulewicz and Kinkopf.

Spartan Quickfacts
Michigan State has picked up the doubles point 12 times this season, most recently against Iowa. They are 12-9 in dual play with 11 of those wins coming at home and one on the road. Eight of the nine teams that MSU has fallen to are all nationally ranked; No. 25 Notre Dame, No. 29 Tulsa, No. 60 California, No. 37 Minnesota, No. 26 Wisconsin, No. 58 Northwestern, No. 5 Ohio State and No. 51 Penn State.

MSU has have had three losses at home, coming from No. 25 Notre Dame, No. 5 Ohio State and No. 51 Penn State. The Spartans currently stand at 0-6 in Big Ten play.

The Michigan Wolverines
The Wolverines are ranked 47th in the nation and hold national rankings in singles and doubles play. Sophomore Jason Jung is 98th in the nation in singles play and has partnered with two different teammates to post national rankings in doubles as well; Jung and Mike Sroczynski are currently ranked at No. 24, while Jung and George Navas are ranked 51st. This match marks the 107th meeting between the long-time rivals. Michigan leads the all-time series, 86-20, and the last time the Spartans faced-off against the Wolverines, Michigan topped MSU, 5-2 , on March 12, 2008.

Up Next
MSU hits the road on Saturday, April 11 for a match against Purdue in West Lafayette, Ind., with play beginning at noon.