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Penn State Wins Middle States Campus Championship

The first USTA Campus Championships of 2007-2008 took place on a beautiful weekend at Lehigh University. The 4th Annual Middle States event was held with 20 teams from 13 schools competing.


Penn State won their 2nd consecutive Campus Championship, as both their Blue and White teams met in the final. Penn State remained undefeated for the year after their win at the Battle of the Sections: Northeast in New York, and their two match wins against UPenn and Delaware. They have reached at least the final in every Middle States Championship. In 2004, they lost to UPenn in the final, and in 2005, they lost to Villanova.


8 teams advanced from Pool Play into the Gold Championship Bracket. In the quarterfinals, Villanova beat Rutgers Red 27-18, Penn State White beat Pittsburgh Blue 24-23, UPenn beat Lehigh Brown 25-19, and Penn State Blue beat Delaware Blue 28-17. In the first semifinal, Penn State Blue beat UPenn 27-22. In the second semifinal, Villanova faced a Penn State team in a semifinal match for the 3rd straight year, this time, a tough Penn State White team. After taking a 21-15 lead, Villanova lost the Mixed Doubles 6-2 to force overtime. Penn State saved 3 match points to force a Super-Tiebreaker for the match, ultimately winning it 7-4, to take the match 24-23. Penn State Blue then beat Penn State White 30-13.


In the 3rd Place Consolation Match, Villanova beat UPenn 29-20. On the other side of the Gold Draw, Delaware Blue battled through 2 tough matches to take the consolation, beating Pittsburgh Blue 25-19. There was also a silver bracket for teams that didn’t finish in the top 8 in pool play. Rutgers White beat Pitt Gold and Delaware gold enroute to a Silver Bracket win. In the Silver Consolation, Shippensburg Blue beat Shippensburg Red.


Schools that competed include Penn State, Temple, Shippensburg, Villanova, Delaware, Rutgers, College of New Jersey, UPenn, Lehigh, Drexel, and newcomers West Chester, Slippery Rock, and Pittsburgh.