February 15, 2017 - UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; The Penn State men's tennis team opened up Big Ten conference match play this evening at the Indoor Tennis Center in Happy Valley. The Ohio State Buckeyes made their first road trip of the season this week to face the Nittany Lions in what was their first conference match of the season as well.
The Lion's dropped the doubles point to the No. 3 team in the nation tonight. Constant De La Bassetiere (Reims, France) and Christian Lakoseljac (King City, Ontario, Canada) fell to Mikael Torpegaard and Herkko Pollanen on court one 6-1. Gabriel Nemeth (Brasilia, Brazil) and Christos Antonopoulos (Athens, Greece) were topped 6-2 by Matt Mendez and Hunter Tubert on court three. Aws Laaribi (Rye, N.Y.) and Ben Lieb (Newtown Square, Pa.) battled with Martin Joyce and Huge Di Feo on court two.
Singles today featured Constant De La Bassetiere, Christian Lakoseljac, Christos Antonopoulos, and Aws Laaribi against some very strong members from the Buckeye's lineup. It was a hard fought battle for the Lions, but unfortunately they came up shy in these singles matches.
"There's a reason that they're one of the top teams in the country, not only in the Big Ten," said head coach Jeff Zinn following the match. "They are as advertised, they're solid at every position and we need to play at our ultimate best to have a chance to beat a team like Ohio State. It was a great learning experience for our youngest guys to see the level that they need to compete at for championships in the Big Ten. I was pleased with Aws Laaribi and I just wish that we could get to the strength of our team, which is at our fifth and sixth singles positions. Hopefully in future matches we can get to playing our strengths up at those last two positions."
"Our guys had some opportunities to get some wins in singles," said associate head coach Paul Tobin. "I thought taking the doubles point would have been a stretch, we had three freshman playing doubles and we need to start getting our pairings down. Lako [Christian Lakoseljac] had a great first set in single but he lost his mojo in the second. We can't do that against one of the best teams in college tennis. Christos and Aws also played well, but unfortunately it didn't pan out the way we wanted."
Penn State's next conquest following this mid-week matchup will be on Saturday, March 4 at 10 a.m. on their home court against Brown.
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Doubles Results:
1. Torpegaard/Pollanen (OSU) def. De La Bassetiere/Lakoseljac (PSU), 6-1
2. Laaribi/B. Lieb (PSU) vs. Joyce/Di Feo (OSU), unfinished
3. Mendez/Tubert (OSU) def. Nemeth/Antonopoulos (PSU), 6-2
Order of finish: 1, 3
Singles Results:
1. Mikael Torpegaard (OSU) def. Constant De La Bassetiere (PSU), 6-3, 6-3
2. JJ Wolf (OSU) def. Christian Lakoseljac (PSU), 7-6 (7-5), 6-1
3. Huge Di Feo (OSU) def. Christos Antonopoulos (PSU), 6-2, 6-3
4. Herkko Pollanen (OSU) vs. Aws Laaribi (PSU), 6-2, unfinished
Order of finish: 3, 1, 2