Five of 11 players new for M. Tennis in fall

The Penn men's tennis team heads to thr Penn State Invite this weekend. Things are moving along rather quickly for the Penn men's tennis team. While it was only yesterday that coach Gordie Ernst posted the team roster, the Red and Blue jump immediately into competition as they head to the Penn State Invitational this weekend. Though the Quakers lost only one athlete to graduation, former captain Jordan Szekely, this season's team will not have the same look as the 1998-99 squad. For one thing, both junior Dominic Rioux and senior Uday Garg will not be representing the Red and Blue this fall. And though their absence will surely be felt, Ernst has retained the core of the team -- including co-captains Eric Sobotka and Brett Meringoff, Joey Zupan, Brian Barki, Rob Pringle and Kevin Strouse -- while adding a number of new faces to complement the old. Perhaps the most surprising addition to the Quakers is an athlete who first appeared in a Penn uniform last fall -- a football uniform. Sophomore Jared Corby defected this season from the defending Ivy championship football team to join the at-times struggling racketeers. "I played tennis when I was younger very competitively and I always had a passion for it," said Corby, a defensive back on last year's football squad. "But my whole family is a football family and my brother played football for the University of Tennessee and I kind of wanted to follow in his footsteps and play college football. "I had a great experience playing football here, but I got to thinking that if I wanted to play tennis again, this was my shot." However, making the transition from a contact sport to the civility of tennis will not be as simple as it may seem. "There's going to be a part of me that's going to miss [football]," Corby said. "There's nothing like getting the pads on and getting your adrenaline going and hitting somebody. But that's the decision I made, and I have to live with it." While Corby may be new to the Lott Courts, other additions are new to the West Philadelphia area. Fanda Stejskl, a transfer from Baylor University in Waco, Texas, joins several freshmen -- Barnes Benson, Ryan Harwood and Andy Kolker -- hoping to make an impact on the Penn tennis scene. The freshmen are led by Harwood, the Quakers' No. 1 recruit, a top juniors player who hails from Long Island, N.Y. "Ryan will do well, I think. He has a lot of tools," said Pringle, who is also a Daily Pennsylvanian photographer. "We definitely have a spot on the team for a guy like him, someone who's going to come in and apply himself, and who has the talent." After only one week of practice matches, the Red and Blue are hoping to see some of that talent in action this weekend as they face their first challenge of the season -- the Penn State Invitational. The tournament comes early in the season for a team that has just settled on its roster and does not know yet who will travel this weekend. Although the task of competing -- and competing well -- at the upcoming tournament may seem daunting to an outsider, Penn sees the Invitational as being perfectly timed. "After a week of practicing, now we'll see if we're ready," said Barki, a sophomore. "This weekend will be the test."