April 8, 2017 - UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; The Penn State men's tennis team hosted Purdue yesterday evening at the Indoor Tennis Center in Happy Valley.
The Boilermakers stole the doubles point last night, winning two of the three doubles matches. At No. 1, Constant De La Bassetiere (Reims, France) and Christian Lakoseljac (King City, Ontario, Canada) combined to get the lone doubles win for the Lions posting 6-2 against Gergely Madarasz and Ricky Medinilla.
The Nittany Lions battled yesterday evening during singles competition, but fell two matches to the Boilermakers four. Aws Laaribi (Rye, N.Y.) secured a win at the No. 4 position, going 6-1, 6-4 against Purdue's Stephan Koenigsfest. Ben Lieb, at No. 5, also gained a point for the Lions with a 7-5, 6-2 win over Renan Hanayama.
"For whatever reason, we can't seem to get on a good run and keep our momentum going in these big matches," commented head coach Jeff Zinn. "We put ourselves in great positions to win the match and then we don't close the door on our opponents. A lot of that has to do with inexperience and youth, most of these guys haven't been in these situations before this year and it shows. The more times you put yourself in a winning position the more chances you will have to get over the hump and gain confidence in tight situations. That is for all sports but especially true in tennis since you are out there by yourself on an island. All we can do is keep plugging away and learning from these experiences to hopefully gain the needed confidence."
"This was a disappointing loss," said associate head coach Paul Tobin. "There were way too many chances to turn this around. After splitting doubles, Christian and Nika were up on serve 3-1 at 5-5 and couldn't close it out. In singles, Lakoseljac was up 5-1 in the 2nd, only to lose in a third set. Both Constant and Christos had opportunities in the second, but it just didn't go our way. At this point we just have to keep going, we have six more Big Ten matches in regular season and everybody's ranked. Everything is still possible."
Penn State will follow this Friday's match with a double-header on Sunday, April 9 against Indiana and Temple at 12:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m., respectively. This double header will be played outdoors at the Sarni Tennis Center.
Be sure to check back to GoPSUsports.com and our social media pages for updates from this weekend's matches!
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Doubles Results:
1. Bassetiere/Lakoseljac (PSU) def. Madarasz/Medinilla (PUR), 6-2
2. Ugarte/Hanayama (PUR) def. Antonopoulos/Kohan (PSU), 6-3
3. Koenigsfest/Bennett (PUR) def. Lutschaunig/Dolidze (PSU), 7-5
Order of Finish: 1, 2, 3
Singles Results:
1. Gergely Madarasz (PUR) def. Constant De La Bassetiere (PSU), 6-3, 2-6, 6-2
2. Ricky Medinilla (PUR) def. Christian Lakoseljac (PSU), 1-6, 7-6, 6-4
3. Benjamin Ugarte (PUR) def. Christos Antonopoulos (PSU), 6-3, 7-5
4. Aws Laaribi (PSU) def. Stephan Koenigsfest (PUR), 6-1, 6-4
5. Ben Lieb (PSU) def. Renan Hanayama (PUR), 7-5, 6-2
6. Athell Bennett (PUR) def. Marc Collado (PSU), 6-2, 6-1
Order of Finish: 4, 3, 1, 2, 5, 6