Columbus, Ohio - April 26, 2002 - The Penn State Nittany Lion tennis team saw its tournament season come to an end with a 4-0 loss to No. 1 seed Illinois in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals.
Illinois won the doubles points with victories at the Nos. 1 and 3 positions. Amer Delic and Michael Calkins defeated PSU's Jamie Gresh (Barrington, R.I.) and Clint Keithly (Girard, Ohio) 8-5, at the No. 1 position. Illinois also won the No. 3 doubles match to win the point.
The Illini then won at the Nos. 2, 5, and 6 positions in singles to win the match 4-0. Illinois' Brian Wilson defeated Penn State's Todd Stecko (Lake Forest, Ill.) 6-0, 6-4 at the No. 2 singles spot. Nathan Zeder of Illinois downed Roddy Cantey (Aiken, S.C.) 6-0, 6-3 at the No. 5 position and UI's Chris Martin downed Keithly 6-4, 6-1 at No. 6.
The Illini advanced to face the winner of the Northwestern (No. 4 seed) and Purdue (5) match. Penn State's dual match season comes to an end with a 12-13 overall mark. The NCAA will announce the teams selected to the 2002 NCAA Men's Tennis Championship Tournament next week. Gresh, who qualified for the NCAA Individual Singles Championships last year and went 1-1, will await word of a possible invite to this year's tournament. That announcement will come in the next two weeks.
(1) Illinois 4 (21-4, 11-0)
(8) Penn State 0 (12-13, 4-8)
Singles **
(1) Amer Delic (UI) vs. Jamie Gresh (PSU) (14-7, 6-4) Abandoned
(2) Brian Wilson (UI) def. Todd Stecko (PSU) (16-17, 2-6) 6-0, 6-4
(3) Mike Kosta (UI) vs. Brad Nudell (PSU) (11-15, 2-8) Abandoned
(4) Michael Calkins (UI) vs. Matt Frakes (PSU) (17-13, 3-7) Abandoned
(5) Nathan Zeder (UI) def. Roddy Cantey (PSU) (10-16, 2-8) 6-0, 6-3
(6) Chris Martin (UI) def. Clint Keithly (PSU) (6-9, 4-8) 6-4, 6-1
Doubles **
(1) Delic/Calkins (UI) def. Gresh/Keithly (PSU) (5-1, 5-1) 8-5
(2) Stolt/Wilson (UI) vs. Nudell/Frakes (PSU) (4-9, 2-7) Abandoned
(3) Kosta/Parker (UI) def. Cantey/Stecko (PSU) (1-2, 0-2) 8-2
** Individual records entering Big Ten Tournament.
