Feb. 28, 2016
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. -- The No. 21 Nittany Lions (10-1, 0-1) traveled to University of Pennsylvania (4-6, 1-2) on Sunday. Penn State passed by Penn 5-2. The No. 21 Nittany Lions played at No. 3 Ohio State on Friday, dropping the match 4-0.
"I thought we came really prepared to play today," said head coach Jeff Zinn. "This is one of our tougher road trips of the year, playing the No. 3 team in the country then traveling eight hours to play here."
The Nittany Lions won a close doubles point after splitting the first two matches. David Kohan (Sydney, Australia) and Christian Lutschaunig (Richboro, Pa.) won a tough tiebreak point against the ranked doubles pair (No.25) of Kaplan and Westergaard to pull out the early Penn State lead.
The momentum carried into singles as the Lions won crucial points over the Quakers throughout.
"We played really well today," said Coach Zinn. This was a great win against a quality team .I fell really good about where we are right now as a team."
Freshman Constant De La Bassetiere (Reims, France) and Ben Lieb (Newtown Square, Pa.) pulled out big wins against the Ivy League team to start the singles momentum. Senior and co-captain Tomas Hanzlik (Prague, Czech Republic) continued the wins for Penn State, taking down the Quakers at fifth singles. No. 98 Matt Barry easily defeated Pompan of Penn 6-4, 6-1 to clinch the win at 4-1.
"Penn has had close matches with ranked opponents all season, so we knew this match could be close as well," said assistant coach Paul Tobin. "Our doubles matches were close. I am glad we pulled through and continued that momentum into singles."
The Nittany Lions are back in action when they travel to Princeton University on March 5th at 11 a.m.
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5 Penn State, 2 Penn
Doubles:
1. David Kohan/Christian Lutschaunig (PSU) def. #25 Kaplan/Westergaard (PENN), 7-6(4).
2. Matt Barry/Leo Stakhovsky (PSU) def. Nardella/Sharp (PENN), 6-3.
3. Willenborg/Mautner (PENN) def. Roman Trkulja/Constant De La Bassetiere (PSU), 6-3.
Order of Finish: 2, 3, 1
Singles:
1. Mautner (PENN) def. #59 Leo Stakhovsky (PSU), 6-1, 6-4.
2. Constant De La Bassetiere (PSU) def. De Alwis (PENN), 7-5, 6-2.
3. #98 Matt Barry (PSU) def. Pompan (PENN), 6-4, 6-1.
4. Nardella (PENN) def. Aws Laaribi (PSU), 6-7(4), 6-4, 1-0(5).
5. Tomas Hanzlik (PSU) def. Westergaard (PENN), 6-4, 6-3.
6. Ben Lieb (PSU) def. Willenborg (PENN), 6-2, 6-4.
Order of Finish: 1, 6, 5, 3, 2, 4