September 24, 2016 - UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; The Penn State men's tennis team continued their opening weekend today at the split squad Ivy Plus Invitational co-hosted by Princeton University and University of Pennsylvania. This tournament will conclude on Sunday, September 25.
The second day of this opening weekend featured both singles and doubles matches and proved to be very rewarding for the Nittany Lions. Doubles pair Gabriel Nemeth (Barsilia, Brazil) and Ben Lieb (Newtown Square, PA) defeated the Rapoport/Spratt pair from University of Pennsylvania 9-7 and then went on to top Solomon/Beren from Harvard 8-3. In the same flight were Matt Galush (Cary, NC) and Henry Gordon (Neew Braunfels, TX) who won in a match against Midgley/Grabill (Dartmouth) by retired 4-1 and went on to win against Roberts/Carcione (Princeton) 8-6. The Nemeth/Lieb, Galush/Gordon victories won the flight for the Lions. In the Whitman draw, parteners Lieb (Newtown Square, PA) and Collado (Barcelona, Spain) won against Marist pair Gladden/Mazza and followed it up with another win against Wisconsin's O'hoisin/Colton 8-3.
The blue and white also had a very successful day in singles matches. Most notably, Zach Lieb (Newtown Square, PA) who defeated Harvard's Xavier Gonzalez in an impressive 6-1, 6-4 show. This victory puts Lieb in place to play for the final tomorrow.
"The matches were a little tougher today because everyone wanted to get to the finals of their respective draws" says head coach Jeff Zinn from Princeton, NJ " We went 2-2 in singles and I felt in out two losses that conditioning was a factor. We have to work on that in the next few weeks. Overall I was pleased with our effort and we need to finish on a positive note tomorrow." "Really good today! I felt our doubles was extremely impressive and we took five out of six matches; and won the flight. Did well in singles; Zach Lieb still in the main playing in the finals tomorrow," says associate head coach Paul Tobin from the University of Pennsylvania location of the tournament.
The Ivy Plus Tournament will resume tomorrow morning and conclude in the afternoon.
Remember to follow up with GoPSUsports and our social media this weekend to keep up to date with the results of the Ivy Plus Tournament.
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