KUTZTOWN, Pa. – The Kutztown University men's tennis team has been one of the premiere programs in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference for over a decade. Aiming to continue its history of great success, Kutztown travels to Indiana (PA) this weekend for the PSAC Championships in search of its 11th title in program history.
 
The Golden Bears (9-6, 4-1 PSAC East) are the No. 2 seed in the tournament and will play in a semifinal match on Friday, April 19 against Mercyhurst University, the No. 3 seed on the campus of Indiana University (PA) at 1 p.m.
 
West Chester won the regular season title and will play No. 4 seed Edinboro University in the other semifinal match beginning at 3 p.m. on Friday. The championship match will be played on Saturday, April 20 at 11 a.m. with the consolation match following at 3 p.m.
 
Kutztown has won the PSAC Championship in three of the last four, and nine of the last 12 years at the annual team championships. Bloomsburg is the defending PSAC Champion and has won a conference-best 22 titles. Kutztown has won 10 championships in program history and is tied for second in total championships with East Stroudsburg.
 
KU and MU have already met once this season. Kutztown defeated Mercyhurst 8-1 on April 6 at the Keystone Courts to close out a crossover weekend. The Golden Bears won all three doubles matches, and five of six singles matches against the Lakers.
 
Kutztown has never lost to Mercyhurst in the history of the two programs. KU is 9-0 all-time against the Lakers dating back to the 2008-09 season. Kutztown also defeated Mercyhurst in the semifinals in 2009 and 2011 and in the championship match in 2010.
 
Junior Rushi Amin (Orefield, PA/Lake Brantley) has led the Golden Bears at No. 1 singles this season. Currently riding a six-match winning streak, Amin holds an impressive 13-1 record this season and a perfect 5-0 record in PSAC play. Earlier this season, Amin defeated Mercyhurst's Jorn van der Veer in straight sets (6-3, 6-2).
 
Sophomore Varun Desai (Mumbai, India/K.C. College) has played most of his matches at No. 2 singles and is 11-2 in singles play this season, also with a 5-0 record in conference play. He took down Mercyhurst's Travis Beck 6-1, 7-5 earlier this season.
 
Fellow sophomore Matthew Maguire has won two in a row at No. 3 singles and holds a 9-3 record (4-1 PSAC).
 
In doubles plays, Amin has teamed with both Desai and Maguire at No. 1 doubles. Amin and Desai are 5-0 in doubles play, and Amin and Maguire hold a 7-3 record.
 
Also holding undefeated PSAC records in double play this season have been Rich Lichtenwalner (Allentown, Pa./Parkland) and Ben Nace (Spring Grove, Pa./Delone Catholic) (2-0), and the team on Maguire and Kenny Beebe (3-0).
 
Looking ahead to Saturday's potential competition, Kutztown defeated Edinboro on the crossover weekend 8-1, but fell to West Chester on March 30 on the road, 5-4.