March 12, 2016
TAMPA, Fla. ââ'¬" The No. 23 Nittany Lions (11-3, 0-1) faced No. 16 University of South Florida (9-5) in Tampa on Saturday. The Lions dropped the match 4-0 having trouble finishing out the big, game changing points. This was the second out of three spring break matches for Penn State.
"South Florida is a great team," said head coach Jeff Zinn. "I felt that we were fighting in every match but we need to go back to the drawing board and learn from this. We need to learn to play in the moment and finish out the big points, at third and fourth singles that was our downfall. "
Penn State saw trouble early when heading into doubles. The team fell behind losing the first and third flights, 6-3, 6-4. The Bulls clinched the first point of the match, propelling them into singles.
"For whatever reason, we just did not come out with the necessary results from our doubles, which is disappointing," said Coach Zinn. "I think we need to play just a little bit better if we want to position ourselves as an elite team in the country."
USF saw their chance and never let up. At first singles, Leonard Stakhovsky (Kiev, Ukraine) met the No. 4 ranked Roberto Cid. Stakhovsky fought back in the second set to bring it to a tiebreak. Constant De La Bassetiere (Reims, France) also met a ranked foe in No. 50 Dominic Cotrone. The freshman was tied with Cotrone when USF clinched the match. Senior and co-captain Tomas Hanzlik (Prague, Czech Republic) was up a set and winning the second set when the match was halted.
"We came into today thinking that we could beat South Florida," said assistant coach Paul Tobin. " We had some close matches that could have gone either way. Now we must turn our focus to Florida Gulf Coast for Sunday."
The Nittany Lions will play Florida Gulf Coast University tomorrow at Noon. Please check back to GoPSUsports.com throughout the weekend for coverage of the Penn State men's tennis team. Live match updates are available on our Facebook, Penn State Men's Tennis, and Twitter, @pennstateMTEN, pages.
0 Penn State, 4 USF
Doubles:
1. Cotrone/Gozun (USF) def. Kohan/Lutschaunig (PSU), 6-3.
2. Cid/Gonzalez (USF) vs. Stakhovsky/Barry (PSU), 6-6, unfinished.
3. Bertran/Dzib (USF) def. De La Bassetiere/Laaribi (PSU), 6-4.
Order of Finish: 1, 3
Singles:
1. #4 Roberto Cid (USF) def. Leo Stakhovsky (PSU), 6-4, 7-6.
2. #50 Dominic Cotrone (USF) vs. Constant De La Bassetiere (PSU), 4-6, 6-1, 1-1, unfinished.
3. Sasha Gozun (USF) def. Matt Barry (PSU), 7-5, 6-2.
4. Peter Betran (USF) def. Aws Laaribi (PSU), 7-5, 6-2.
5. Everth Dzib (USF) vs. Tomas Hanzlik (PSU), 3-6, 6-6, unfinished.
6. Sebastien Butler (USF) vs. Ben Lieb (PSU), 6-2, 6-6, unfinished.
Order of Finish: 3, 4, 1