M. Tennis brings Riley home as new coach

The three-week long search for a new Penn men's tennis coach, following the abrupt resignation of Gordie Ernst, has ended. Yesterday, Penn named Kansas head coach Mark Riley as its new top man. The Philadelphia native returns to Penn after working as an assistant in both the men's and women's programs in the 1992-93 season. "I'm very excited about returning to Penn," Riley said. "I had a great time at Kansas and I learned a lot about running a big-time program. Hopefully I can now apply some of the things I learned at Kansas to Penn's program." And although he will join a team that has been coachless since the beginning of the semester, Riley already has lofty goals set for the Quakers. "They had a pretty good season last year and I'm going to expect to get things going," said Riley, who expects to arrive on campus by September 28. "I'm going to start recruiting as soon as I get to campus and I look forward to being one of the top teams in the Ivies. "That's the kind of expectation I have." And Riley, who graduated from Division III Kalamazoo College in 1982, has the experience to back up those expectations. He owns a 100-70 record in his seven years as a head coach. Riley had been with the Jayhawks since 1996. Prior to that, he spent two seasons as the head coach at Drake University in Iowa. Riley's coaching highlights at Drake included a second-place finish in the Missouri Valley Conference and a second-place finish in the NCAA Region V tournament. At Kansas, Riley compiled a 53-44 record that included Kansas' best finish ever, a No. 9 ranking in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's national poll in 1996. Three of his Jayhawks teams were NCAA Region V qualifiers, and he coached 10 All-Big XII selections, a singles All-American and an NCAA quarterfinal doubles team. Riley played professional singles and doubles from 1984 through 1988 and was the American Tennis Association Doubles Champion in 1985. "His resume speaks for itself," Quakers co-captain Eric Sobotka said. "He's got a winning record and he's got experience, not just with an Ivy program, but with this specific program. Any way you look at it, it's a win-win situation. "I thought he was clearly the best candidate, and I'm glad he's here." And while Riley's arrival will be most welcome, Penn was dominant without a coach at State College, Pa., this past weekend at the Penn State Fall Classic. The Red and Blue's players advanced to the semifinals in nearly every division and, in a demonstration of the individual talent on the team, made the flight A singles final an all-Penn affair. Junior Fanda Stejskal and sophomore Ryan Harwood both advanced to the tournament's final, with Stejskal edging Harwood in three sets, 6-3, 2-6, 6-1. Stejskal was understandably excited about the results, especially after his recovery from offseason elbow surgery. "I was happy I could play for two days straight," Stejskal said. "I'm very happy about that, that the surgery went well." Both Stejskal and Harwood received postseason honors for the Quakers last season. Stejskal was named first team All-Ivy, and Harwood made the second team in his freshman season. In other individual play, co-captain Rob Pringle fought through a grueling four-hour match in the quaterfinals to advance to the B-flight semis, while Penn junior Brian Barki came from behind in the quarterfinals to make the flight C semis. Barki also teamed with Sobotka to reach the semifinals of the flight A doubles bracket, losing to the eventual first-place team from Rutgers. Since Riley does not officially take over until next week, Penn will be coachless again this weekend when they send four players to the Princeton Invitational. The team's first meet with its new coach will be October 6-9 at the ECAC Championships at Harvard.

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