February 5, 2017 - UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; The Penn State men's tennis team closed out their home opening weekend with a win against St. Bonaventure this afternoon at the Indoor Tennis Center in Happy Valley. This match concluded a back-to-back double-header weekend that proved to be successful for the Lions, who finished with three shut out wins.
Doubles teams Henry Gordon (New Braunfels, Tx.) and Nika Dolidze (Tbilisi, Georgia), and Gabriel Nemeth (Brasilia, Brazil) and Christos Antonopoulos (Athens, Greece), brought home the doubles point in quick 6-0, 6-2 matches, respectively. Christian Lutschaunig (Richboro, Pa.) and David Kohan (Sydney, Australia) paired up for the fourth time this weekend on court one.
Nika Dolidze faced Indra Patwardhan from St. Bonaventure on court four and came away with a confident 6-2, 6-2 win. Gabriel Nemeth won 6-2, 6-3 against Guillermo Garcia on court three. On court one, Henry Gordon defeated Victor Blanco, 6-0, 7-5. Zach Lieb (Newtown Square, Pa.) was victorious on court two against Hector Martinez, finishing the match with a 6-0, 6-2 result. David Kohan and Ben Lieb (Newtown Square, Pa.) also won their singles matches this afternoon, coming up with 8-4 and 8-0 results.
"It was a long weekend, and unfortunately we didn't accomplish our goal of finishing 4-0," said head coach Jeff Zinn following this weekend's action. "For Cornell to come in and beat us, my hat's off to them, their team and their coaching staff. They came in well prepared and as advertised as one of the better teams in the Ivy League. We had some good individual performances today, some being Aws Laarabi, Ben Lieb, and Christian Lakoseljac. Those three played extremely well and gave us chances to win the match. Our doubles has been a bit of a disappointment so far this year and we need to figure that aspect of our team out."
"It's good that we took care of business with St Bonaventure today," said associate head coach Paul Tobin. "We didn't drop one set on all courts and that's the way it should be with this team. I think our minds were still on Cornell and how we were going to gain the opportunity to get our rankings higher. Our practices have been good, but we need to get more match play experience to stay competitive. As always, we are going to refocus this week to get ready for VCU this Friday."
The Lion's next contest will bring them back to their home courts this coming Friday, February 10 against Virginia Commonwealth University at 5:00 pm followed by another double-header on Sunday, February 12 against James Madison at 9:00 am and Bucknell at 5:00 pm.
Keep up with the Penn State men's tennis team at GoPSUsports.com. For continued updates throughout the year, make sure to `like' our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/pennstatemten and follow our twitter @pennstateMTEN!
Doubles Results:
1) Kohan/Lutschaunig (PSU) vs. Blanco/Patwardhan (BON), unfinished
2) Nemeth/Antonopoulos (PSU) def. Garcia/Martinez (BON), 6-2
3) Gordon/Dolidze (PSU) def. Rutkowski/Malmberg (BON), 6-0
Order of Finish: 3, 2
Singles Results:
1) Henry Gordon (PSU) def. Victor Blanco (BON), 7-0, 7-5
2) Zach Lieb (PSU) def. Hector Martinez (BON), 6-0, 6-2
3) Gabriel Nemeth (PSU) def. Guillermo Garcia (BON), 6-2, 6-3
4) Nika Dolidze (PSU) def. Indra Patwardhan (BON), 6-2, 6-2
5) David Kohan (PSU) def. John Rutkowski (BON), 8-4
6) Ben Lieb (PSU) def. Lukas Malmberg (BON), 8-0
Order of Finish: 4, 3, 1, 2, 5, 6