WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – The William & Mary men's tennis team hits the road for a pair of matches this weekend. The Tribe travels to Big Ten foe Penn State on Friday, Feb. 15, before heading to Liberty on Saturday, Feb. 16. The W&M-PSU match is slated for a 5 pm. start time on Friday. The Liberty match will be played at Boonsboro Country Club (1709 B C C Dr, Lynchburg, VA 24503) at 4 p.m. on Saturday.

Scouting the Tribe
- In the latest national rankings released on Feb. 6, senior Tristan Bautil and sophomore Finbar Talcott came in at No. 45 in the country in doubles. The Tribe tandem owns a win over the current No. 19-ranked Virginia Tech duo of Henrik Korsgaard and Alex Ribeiro at the Virginia Tech Invitational in January.
- In its most recent match against Brown, all six singles matches were close with every set decided by 6-4, 7-5 or tiebreaker scores. A trio of matches (No. 1, No. 2 and No. 5) went three sets, but was abandoned when the Bears clinched the 4-0 team win.
- In the Tribe's dual-match with Princeton on Feb. 2, junior Brenden Volk and freshman Jack Kelly picked up singles wins for the Tribe. Volk picked up his first win at No. 1 singles in straight-sets victory over Ryan Seggerman, while Kelly downed Will Peters in three sets at No. 5.
- The Tribe opened the 2019 dual-match season against three-straight Power Conference opponents. It marked the first time the Tribe played three in a row since 2013 and the first time W&M opened the season with three straight since 1993. Penn State will be W&M's fourth major conference foe from its third different power league.
- Sophomores Sebastian Quiros and Finbar Talcott both posted nationally-ranked singles wins during the Tribe's opening three dual matches of the season. Quiros knocked off No. 38-ranked Gianni Ross of Virginia in three-sets, 6-3, 0-6, 6-2. It was W&M's highest ranked dual-match singles win since 2010. Talcott topped No. 104-ranked Brandon Lancaster of Louisville, 7-5, 6-1, at No. 2 on Jan. 27 for his first career ranked win.
 
Scouting Penn State
- Penn State sits at 4-3 on the year but has dropped three of its last four.
- The Nittany Lions opened the year with a trio of close wins at the Jerry Simmons Invitational in Baton Rouge, La. PSU topped Louisiana (4-3), South Florida (4-2) and LSU (4-2) by close margins.
- After dropping matches to Harvard and Vanderbilt in Cambridge, Mass., Penn State won its lone home match to this point in the year, downing Charlotte, 6-1.
- Princeton upended Penn State in its most recent match, 5-2. Constant De La Bassetiere and Ben Lieb posted the PSU wins with singles triumphs at No. 1 and No. 6, respectively.
- De La Bassetiere is 4-1 at the top singles position, while Christian Lakoseljac is 4-2 at No. 2. De La Bassetiere is a team-best 10-4 in singles action.
- In doubles, De La Bassetiere and Gabriel Nemeth are ranked No. 4 nationally. The pair started the spring season ranked No. 1 after winning the ITA Atlantic Regional and the consolation final at the Oracle/ITA Fall National Championship. The duo is 13-6 on the year.
 
Series History: W&M vs. Penn State
- The Nittany Lions holds an 8-6 advantage in the all-time series.
- The teams meet on Friday for the first time since 2016 when PSU downed the Tribe, 5-2, in University Park, Pa.
- Friday marks the third-straight match in the series at Penn State, and the Nittany Lions are 2-0 in the previous two meetings.
- PSU has won five in a row against the Tribe. W&M's last win in the series came in 1990 in Williamsburg.
 
Scouting Liberty
- Liberty enters the weekend at 1-5 on the year and hosts George Washington on Friday, before taking on the Tribe.
- Most recently, the Flames dropped a pair in a West Coast Trip to Seattle, falling at Washington, 4-3, and against Santa Clara, 6-1.
- Liberty's lone win on the year came by a 4-3 scoreline over CAA foe Drexel.
- The Flames setbacks include at Miami (Fla.) (6-1), at Penn (6-1) and at Princeton (6-1).
- Nicaise Muamba holds down the No. 1 singles spot for the Flames and is ranked No. 104 nationally. He is a team-best 13-9 overall and 3-3 at the top post. Muamba upset the current No. 13-ranked player in the country during the team's dual-match with Miami (Fla.).
- Josh Wilson leads the team with a 4-2 dual-match record, playing as high as No. 2 in the lineup. He is 10-8 overall.
- Nuamba and Chase Burton are 5-4 as a doubles team and 3-3 at No. 1.
 
Series History: W&M vs. Liberty
- The Tribe has won all seven meetings between the teams.
- Saturday's match-up marks the Tribe's first trip to Lynchburg for a dual-match.
- It marks the second-straight season that the teams have met.
- W&M downed the Flames, 5-2, in Williamsburg in 2018.
- Finbar Talcott and Sebastian Quiros both tallied singles wins for the Green and Gold.  
 
Up Next
- The Tribe returns home for a pair of matches next week, hosting Ivy League foes Yale (Feb. 23) and Penn (Feb. 24). The W&M-Yale match is slated for 1 p.m. on Saturday with the Tribe-Quakers contest set for 10 a.m. on Sunday.