March 4, 2017 - UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; The Penn State men's tennis team defeated the Brown University Bears this morning in Happy Valley. The match began at 9:00 a.m. in the Indoor Tennis Center and will kick off the Lions' spring break training.
The Lions were able to secure the doubles point today with Constant De La Bassetiere (Reims, France) and Christian Lakoseljac (King City, Ontario, Canada) bringing the first doubles win with a 6-3 result against Brown. Aws Laaribi (Rye, N.Y.) and Ben Lieb (Newtown Square, Pa.) secured the doubles point with their 6-3 victory. Nika Dolidze (Tbilisi, Georgia) and Henry Gordon (New Braunfels, Tx.) finished up doubles competition with a winning 6-4 result.
Penn State also succeeded in singles today, with several hard fought matches. De La Bassetiere faced Aaron Sandberg from Brown and was victorious 6-4, 6-1. Christos Antonopolous (Athens, Greece) battled hard today against Gregory Garcia but came out on top after forcing a third set to secure the win for the blue and white today.
"I felt like we played our best doubles of the year today," said head coach Jeff Zinn. "We have been working so hard these last two weeks to better our doubles performance. It's so important to get up one ââ'¬" zero against good teams. I was pleased with the top of our line-up, mainly with Constant [De La Bassetiere] and Christian [Lakoseljac]. They took care of business in the one and two positions today. This win starts our spring break training in the right direction with a win over a very good Brown tennis team."
"Brown came into this match 8-0 and with confidence," said associate head coach Paul Tobin. "We knew anything could happen if we didn't step up in doubles, getting the doubles point was pivotal with some singles matches getting too close. Great job to Christos [Antonopolous] who fought back down 3-1 in the second set to take it a third and clinch the match. We are all looking forward to Florida training and taking on the University of Central Florida this Wednesday."
Penn State will now travel to Lake Nona, Fla. to take on the University of Central Florida at the USTA National Campus in a College MatchDay event on Wednesday, March 8. Festivities begin at 4:00 p.m. on the day of the match with an alumni tailgate, with the match to follow at 6:00 p.m. The match will be televised on ESPN3.
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