Oct. 20, 2014
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - The Penn State men's tennis team finished play at the ITA Atlantic Regional on Monday as senior Michael Reilly (Raleigh, N.C.) and junior Leonard Stakhovsky (Kiev, Ukraine) dropped a tough, three-set match in the Doubles Draw semifinal. The tournament was hosted by the University of Virginia.
The Nittany Lions earned a match in the semifinals following three straight wins to start the tournament. On Saturday, they knocked off Duquesne's Tim Kane and Harry Walshe, 8-6. They followed that up with an 8-4 victory over George Washington's Cahit Kapukrian and Danil Zelenkov. On Sunday, the duo defeated Virginia Tech's Aaron Gomez and Florian Nicoud to advance to the semifinals.
In Monday's contest, Reilly and Stakhovsky, the fourth overall seed in the tournament, met Virginia's Luca Corinteli and Ryan Shane, the fifth overall seed. The Nittany Lions took the opening set, 6-3. A tough second set went to the Cavaliers, 7-6(5).
The final set, a super-tiebreaker set, finished with a result of 10-8, with the Cavaliers coming out on top.
Despite the loss, Penn State had a strong doubles performance over the weekend, with three pairs reaching the Round of 16 and two pairs moving onto the Quarterfinals.
Sophomore Aws Laaribi (Rye, N.Y.) and junior Roman Trkulja (Toronto, Canada) earned three wins, including an 8-6 victory over Virginia Tech's Andreas Bjerrehus and Amerigo Contini, the top overall seed and 17th ranked doubles team in the ITA Poll.
In singles, the Nittany Lions compiled 10 wins, with two members of the team, sophomore Alex Fennell (Bala Cynwyd, Pa.) and senior Tomas Hanzlik (Prague, Czech Republic) reaching the Round of 16.
"This weekend was a good test for our players," said Assistant Coach Paul Tobin. "Obviously, Coach Zinn and I would have liked some more players to go deeper in singles, but now we know what to work on and can start preparing. That's what these fall tournaments are all about."
"Tomas and Alex put up a good fight, drawing top seeds in the Round of 16. Doubles also had some promise with Roman and Aws losing a tight match to the No. 5 seed from UVA and Leo and Mike fell to the same team in the semifinals in a dramatic conclusion. Mike and Leo were up 6-3, 4-0, but were not able to close it out."
Penn State will next travel to Orlando, Fla. for the Disney Invite. The tournament will begin on Sept. 30 and end on Oct. 2, with some matches being televised on ESPN3.
Please check back to GoPSUSports.com for more coverage of the Penn State men's tennis team. Updates are also available on our Facebook, Penn State Men's Tennis, and Twitter, @pennstateMTEN, pages.
ITA Atlantic Regional
Doubles:
Round of 64) Laaribi/Trkulja(PSU) def. Belkssir/Paulus(Tem), 8-6.
Barry/Fennell(PSU) def. Jover Maestre/Lopez Villa(ODU), 8-6.
Juggins/Niquet(W&M) def. Collado Castells/Hanzlik(PSU), 8-5.
Dolidze/Lutschaunig(PSU) def. Glavin/Podvinsky(ODU), 8-4.
Round of 32) Laaribi/Trkulja(PSU) def. Ruzic/Salinas(JMU), 8-5.
Barry/Fennell(PSU) def. Castellano/Johnson(LW), 8-1.
Reilly/Stakhovsky(PSU) def. Kane/Walshe(Duq), 8-6.
#34 Dias/Tverijonas(GW) def. Dolidze/Lutschaunig(PSU), 8-5.
Round of 16) Laaribi/Trkulja(PSU) def. #17 Bjerrehus/Contini(VT), 8-6.
Corinteli/Shane(UVA) def. Barry/Fennell(PSU), 8-3.
Reilly/Stakhovsky(PSU) def. Kapukrian/Zelenkov(GW), 8-4.
Quarterfinals) Corinteli/Shane(UVA) def. Laaribi/Trkulja(PSU), 8-5.
Reilly/Stakhovsky(PSU) def. Gomez/Nicoud(VT), 8-3.
Semifinals) Corinteli/Shane(UVA) def. Reilly/Stakhovsky(PSU), 3-6, 7-6(5), 10-8.
Singles:
Round of 128) Michael Reilly(PSU) def. Daniel Khanin(GTown), 7-6, 6-3.
Marc Collado Castells(PSU) def. Jacob Svensson(VCU), 7-5, 6-4.
Nika Dolidze(PSU) def. Lars de Boer(W&M), 6-1, 6-2.
Will Juggins(W&M) def. Christian Lutschaunig(PSU), 6-4, 6-3.
Round of 64) Alex Fennell(PSU) def. Alex Drean(UMBC), 6-0, 6-1.
Aaron Gomez(VT) def. Marc Collado Castells(PSU), 7-6(0), 6-3.
Matt Barry(PSU) def. Corey Robinson(Duq), 6-2, 6-3.
Tomas Hanzlik(PSU) def. Marco Lam(GTown), 6-3, 6-1.
Patrick O'Keefe(Radford) def. Michael Reilly(PSU), 6-3, 6-4.
Florian Nicoud(VT) def. Nika Dolidze(PSU), 6-4, 7-6(5).
Christian Cargill(W&M) def. #29 Leo Stakhovsky(PSU), 6-3, 6-2.
Alex Hahn(Rich) def. Aws Laaribi(PSU), 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.
Roman Trkulja(PSU) def. Joe Hill(GMU), 6-4, 6-2.
Round of 32) Alex Fennell(PSU) def. Julius Tverijonas(GW), 6-3, 7-6(5).
#80 Thai-Son Kwiatkowski(UVA) def. Matt Barry(PSU), 6-2, 6-1.
Tomas Hanzlik(PSU) def. Cahit Kapukrian(GW), 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-4.
#28 Ryan Shane(UVA) def. Roman Trkulja(PSU), 6-3, 6-1.
Consolation) Christian Lutschaunig(PSU) def. Aaron Capitel(GMU), 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.
Round of 16) #14 Amerigo Contini(VT) def. Alex Fennell(PSU), 6-1, 6-1.
#42 Carlos Lopez Villa(ODU) def. Tomas Hanzlik(PSU), 6-3, 6-2.