HERSHEY, Pa. - Penn State Harrisburg's men's tennis team avenged its lone conference defeat of the season by knocking off top-seeded St. Mary's (Md.) 5-2 at the Hershey Racquet Club on Saturday night to win the 2024 United East Championship and clinch the program's second trip to the NCAA Tournament. 

For the Lions (13-7), the championship is just the third conference title in program history. By virtue of the win, Penn State Harrisburg will compete in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the spring of 2012. 

All three doubles matches went Penn State Harrisburg's way, led by an 8-0 sweep by Andrew Schreck and Vik Patel over Max Esztergomi and Andrew Hand in the No. 3 contest. ZiJun Owen Ou and Derwin Merca pulled away from Keawe Johnson and Daoud Alkhalidi in the No. 2 matchup to earn an 8-4 decision before Cooper Wheeler and Damir Cuturic battled to a hard-fought 8-7 (7-5) win over Boris Palmade and Nick Rohr in the No. 1 showdown to complete the doubles sweep and make it 3-0 overall.

The Penn State Harrisburg depth was on display in singles action, with Schreck's 6-0, 7-6 victory over Johnson in the fourth pairing putting the Lions one win away from the conference title before Patel clinched the championship by shrugging off a first-set setback and reeling off back-to-back victories in a 1-6, 6-3, 6-1 decision in the No. 6 matchup. 

The Lions await the announcement of their initial NCAA Tournament opponent on Monday. First round action is set to begin on Friday, May 10.