Nov. 6, 2015
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. ââ'¬" The Penn State men's tennis team continue play at the Big Ten Indoor Championships and USTA Collegiate Clay Courts Tournament Friday. A Nittany Lions doubles pair advanced into the finals at Big Ten Indoors as well as one singles player advancing into the quarterfinals of the Clay Courts Tournament.
Doubles pairing of Junior Christian Lutschaunig (Richboro, Pa.) and Senior David Kohan (Sydney, Australia) advanced into the Doubles Finals of the Big Ten Men's Championships on Friday. Taking down two seeded opponents, the pair advanced into the finals to play Nebraska's one-seed Boyer/Boyer team. The Nittany Lions fell to the twins 6-3 that came down to a close two deuce match. The pair went 4-1 on the day beating seven-seed Theodorou/Jacoby from Iowa 7-6(1) and two-seed Jesse/Matsuya from Illinois 7-6(9-7).
"All in all, it was a pretty good day for some of the doubles players", said Assistant Coach Paul Tobin, "Christian and David advanced to the finals, losing to Nebraska. It came down to two deuce points, which could have easily turned our way."
Three-seed Ben Lieb (Newtown Square, Pa.) and Matt Galush (Cary, N.C.) advance to the Round of 8 after defeating Michigan State's Dube/Shisler in a quick 6-3 match. In the Round of 8, the Nittany Lions lost in a tough match, 7-5, against two-seed Jesse/Matsuya from Illinois.
Roman Trkulja (Toronto, Canada) and Zach Lieb (Newtown Square, Pa.) played out of the tournament in the Round of 16 to seven-seed Theodorou/Jacoby from Iowa in a 6-4 loss.
"Ben Lieb and Galush also played well, losing in a tight match to Illinois. We did a much better job of attacking and closing points at the net. We still need to continue working on returns and volleys," said Coach Tobin, "Singles start tomorrow and if we continue to compete the way we have so far, we should go deep into the tournament."
The Nittany Lions had mixed results in the USTA Collegiate Clay Courts Tournament in Orlando, Fla. Friday. Both doubles matches ended in close matches while one out of the two singles players advanced to play in the quarterfinals on Saturday.
First-seeded Tomas Hanzlik (Prague, Czech Republic) advanced into the past the Round of 16 on Friday defeating Pablo Moreno from Troy, 6-1, 7-5, in a close match. Red-shirt senior Hanzlik will continue singles play Saturday in the quarterfinals.
"Tomas played great today," said Head Coach Jeff Zinn, "He had a tough match today but we believe he will be ready to come out strong tomorrow."
Aws Laaribi (Rye, N.Y.) lost in a tough match against USC's Harrison O'Keefe in the Round of 16. The close, three-set match ended Laaribi's time in the singles Gold Draw.
Penn State had a tough time with doubles, putting up tough fights against their stacked opponents. First-seeded Marc Collado (Barcelona, Spain) and Nika Dolidze (Tbilisi, Georgia) lost to UCS's Benton/Dennis duo, 8-6 in the quarterfinals of the Garnet Draw. The other Nittany Lions pair of Matt Barry (Lido Beach, N.Y.) and Laaribi fell to second-seeded Hadlish/Sidney from Pepperdine. The match was extremely close ending in a 8-6 loss for Penn State in the quarterfinals.
"Both doubles matches were incredibly close today," said Coach Zinn, "The teams played well against some tough competition. We will continue to work hard and improve our doubles game for the spring."
The USTA Collegiate Clay Courts Tournament will continue until Sunday at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Fla. ESPN3 will have live coverage of select matches available. Live updates can be found on the tournament's Twitter page (@2015_CCI).
Big Ten Men's Indoor singles play will begin Saturday and continue on through Monday. Live updates of each match will be posted through Twitter using @2015B1GIndoors.
Please check back to GoPSUSports.com throughout the weekend for more coverage of the Penn State men's tennis team. Follow Penn State men's tennis on Facebook at facebook.com/pennstatemenstennis and on twitter @pennstateMTEN.
Big Ten Men's Championships Day 1
Doubles Round 32, 16, 8, Semifinals, Finals:
16: [3] B.Lieb/Galush (PSU) def. Dube/Shisler (MSU), 6-3
8: [2] Jesse/Matsuya (ILL) def. [3] B.Lieb/Galush (PSU), 7-5
32: Lutschaunig/Kohan (PSU) def. Elsass/Herrmann (NEB), 7-6 (2)
16: Lutschaunig/Kohan (PSU) def. McCoy/Salgado (IND), 6-0
8: Lutschaunig/Kohan (PSU) def. [7] Theodorou/Jacoby (IOWA), 7-6(1)
Semi: Lutschaunig/Kohan (PSU) def. [2] Jesse/Matsuya (ILL), 7-6 (9-7)
Finals: [1] Boyer/Boyer (NEB) def. Lutschaunig/Kohan (PSU), 6-3
32: Trkulja/Z.Lieb (PSU) def. Dages/Hanayama (PUR), 6-4
16: [7] Theodorou/Jacoby (IOWA) def. Trkulja/Z.Lieb (PSU), 6-4
Collegiate Clay Courts Day Two
Singles Garnet Draw (Round of 16):
[1] Tomas Hanzlik def. Pablo Moreno (Troy), 6-1, 7-5
Singles Gold Draw (Round of 16):
Harrison O'Keefe (USC) def. Aws Laaribi (PSU), 3-6, 6-3, 6-3
Doubles Garnet Draw (Quarterfinals):
Benton/Dennis (USC) def. [1] Collado/Dolidze (PSU), 8-4
Doubles Gold Draw (Quarterfinals):
[2] Hadlish/Sidney (PU) def. Barry/Laaribi (PSU), 8-6