February 10, 2017 - UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; The Penn State men's tennis team hosted the Virginia Commonwealth Rams this evening in the Indoor Tennis Center. This is the first of three matches this weekend, with the next two on Sunday, February 12. Sunday will feature play against the James Madison Dukes at 9 a.m. and the Bucknell Bison at 5 p.m.
The blue and white dropped the doubles point this evening against VCU. On court one Constant De La Bassetiere (Reims, France) and Christian Lakoseljac (King City, Ontario, Canada) teamed up against Daryl Monfils and Marten Jonsson, coming away with a 6-2 victory. Court two hosted Christian Lutschaunig (Richboro, Pa.) and Aws Laaribi (Rye, N.Y.) against the Rams' Vitor Lima and Philip Mobius. On court three were David Kohan (Sydney, Australia) and Henry Gordon (New Braunfels, Tx.) facing Arvid Noren and Louis Ishizaka.
The Lions gained an early advantage in singles matches today when freshman Christian Lakoseljac eased past Vitor Lima in a quick 6-1, 6-1 match. Christos Antonopoulos (Athens, Greece) posted another point for the Lions with a 6-2, 6-2 outcome against Inaki Rivero Crespo. Aws Laaribi faced Marten Jonsson for the Nittany Lions and championed the 6'6" player for the Rams in a 6-4, 6-3 result. Marc Collado (Barcelona, Spain) clinched the match for the blue and white against Javier Amantegui in a tough fight that ended with a 6-0, 6-3 score in favor of Marc.
"It was the kind of match that we needed early in the season," said head coach Jeff Zinn following the win. "We needed a match that would push us a little bit. We are still a work in progress in our doubles, and we need to fix that before we play again on Sunday. I am very pleased with seniors Marc Collado and Aws Laaribi coming through in their singles matches. I'm also pleased with our freshman duo Christian Lakoseljac and Christos Antonopoulos, they played very well tonight against very good competition. Moving forward, we need all six line-up players to play well in every match if we are going to be successful. We'll find out starting Sunday against James Madison if we can do that."
"It got a bit shaky when we lost the doubles point," said associate head coach Paul Tobin. "We tried new pairings and it just did not click tonight. VCU is well coached in doubles and never quite let us get the momentum on courts two and three. In singles, we jumped out to a good start on three courts and that gave us the momentum to get the W when Marc clinched the win. I'd like to say great job to our freshman that got it done in two sets. We are all looking forward to our Sunday matches!"
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Doubles Results:
1. De La Bassetiere/Lakoseljac (PSU) def. Monfils/Jonsson (VCU), 6-2
2. Lima/Mobius (VCU) def. Lutschaunig/Laaribi (PSU), 6-2
3. Noren/Ishizaka (VCU) def. Kohan/Gordon (PSU), 6-3
Order of finish: 1, 3, 2
Singles Results:
1. Daryl Monfils (VCU) def. Constant De La Bassetiere (PSU), 6-4, 6-2
2. Christian Lakoseljac (PSU) def. Vitor Lima (VCU), 6-1, 6-1
3. Aws Laaribi (PSU) def. Marten Jonsson (VCU), 6-4, 6-3
4. Christos Antonopoulos (PSU) def. Inaki Rivero Crespo (VCU), 6-2, 6-2
5. Arvid Noren (VCU) def. Ben Lieb (PSU), 6-4, 6-4
6. Marc Collado (PSU) def. Javier Amantegui (VCU), 6-0, 6-3
Order of finish: 2, 1, 4, 3, 6, 5