Jan. 31, 2016
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. ââ'¬" The No.50 Penn State men's tennis team remain undefeated after their doubleheader on Sunday. The Nittany Lions (4-0) wrapped up the day beating University of Maryland-BC (0-5) 7-0. Earlier in the day, the Lions took down Old Dominion (2-3) 5-2.
"We needed a day like today, where we had two quality opponents with quality coaches," said Head Coach Jeff Zinn. "We needed the battle."
Roman Trkulja (Toronto, Canada) and Matt Galush (Cary, N.C.) started the Penn State momentum with a quick win over UMBC's Svard and Loubatie. The pair locked up the 6-2 win in their spring season debut.
Juniors David Kohan (Sydney, Australia) and Christian Lutschaunig (Richboro, Pa.) edged out Carter and Drean 7-5 to clinch the point. Nika Dolidze (Tbilisi, Georgia) and Zach Lieb (Newtown Square, Pa.) got their spring season off to a great start with a 7-5 win over Akinshemoyin and Hsieh.
Tomas Hanzlik (Prague, Czech Republic) was the first singles match to take down the Retrievers. Hanzlik topped Loubatie 6-2, 6-4. Leo Stakhovsky (Kiev, Ukraine) went 2-0 for the day at first singles after taking down UMBC's Justin Carter. Stakhovsky battled back to win the third set 6-0. Constant De La Bassetiere (Reims, France) continued his strong singles presence with a win over University of Maryland-BC's Melker Svard. The freshman finished the three-set match 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 to bring Penn State the win.
Senior Captain Matt Barry (Lido Beach, N.Y.) fought back hard for the win on the third set tiebreaker point. Barry wore down Alex Drean to take the Nittany Lions to 5-0. The tiebreaker ended 7-3 with the match going 4-6, 6-1, 7-6.
Marc Collado (Barcelona, Spain) made his spring singles debut winning 6-3, 6-1 at sixth singles. Ben Lieb (Newtown Square, Pa.) held strong at fifth singles winning 6-2, 5-7, tiebreak point 10-5. Lieb finished the day taking Penn State to a 7-0 win.
"The score line is deceiving because every match was close," said Coach Zinn. "The other teams played extremely well. We don't play for the next two weeks so we have time to get some quality training in because after that, there are no weekends off."
"Great win against the well-coached Old Dominion earlier," said Assistant Coach Paul Tobin. "I thought that we came out strong and never lost our momentum against the Monarchs. It carried over into the match against UMBC and really helped us."
The Nittany Lions are back in action on February 13th when they host Bucknell University and James Madison University at 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., respectively.
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7 Penn State, 0 UMBC
Doubles:
1. David Kohan/Christian Lutschaunig def. (PSU) Carter/Drean (UMBC), 7-5.
2. Roman Trkulja/Matt Galush (PSU) def. Svard/Loubatie (UMBC), 6-2.
3. Nika Dolidze/Zach Lieb (PSU) def. Akinshemoyin/Hsieh (UMBC), 7-5.
Order of Finish: 2, 1, 3
Singles:
1. Leo Stakhovsky (PSU) def. Justin Carter (UMBC), 6-4, 3-6, 6-0.
2. Constant De La Bassetiere (PSU) def. Melker Svard (UMBC), 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.
3. Matt Barry (PSU) def. Alex Drean (UMBC), 4-6, 6-1, 7-6(7-3).
4. Tomas Hanzlik (PSU) def. Eliott Loubatie (UMBC), 6-2, 6-4.
5. Ben Lieb (PSU) def. Biyik Akinshemoyin (UMBC), 6-2, 7-5, tiebreak point 10-5.
6. Marc Collado (PSU) def. Kevin Hsieh (UMBC), 6-3, 6-1.
Order of Finish: 4, 1, 2, 3, 6, 5