April 9, 2017 - UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; Penn State men's tennis experienced a difficult 4-3 loss this afternoon at the Sarni Tennis Center against the Temple Owls. This match follows a lights out 5-2 win by the Nittany Lions against ITA ranked Indiana Hoosiers.
The blue and white locked down the doubles point today against Temple. At the No. 1 spot, Christos Antonopoulos (Athens, Greece) and David Kohan (Sydney, Australia) defeated the Kapshuk/Sevel team 7-5. In the No. 2 position, Christian Lutschaunig (Richboro, Pa.) and Nika Dolidze (Tbilisi, Georgia) paired to take down Dorash/Bohorquez 6-2. At No. 3, Zach Lieb (Newtown Square, Pa.) and Matt Galush (Cary, N.C.) defeated Naran/Mayer 6-4.
Singles gained two points for the Nittany Lions this afternoon. Ben Lieb (Newtown Square, Pa.) won 6-0, 6-1 against Eric Biscoveanu at the No. 6 position and Gabriel Nemeth (Brasilia, Brazil) won 7-5, 6-0 against Uladzimir Dorash at the No. 4 position.
"The thing against Temple, what can I really say," remarked head coach Jeff Zinn this evening. "We rested a lot of guys today and played four guys that had never played before. We put our No. 3 singles player at No. 1 and tried to squeak out a win because of injuries in our lineup, but unfortunately we came up short. We just have to regroup and look forward to our Big Ten matches next weekend."
"We have never been in a situation where five lineup players were either hurt or sick going into a match," said associate head coach Paul Tobin. "After finishing up with a great win over Indiana, we were concerned about some of the guys and decided to keep them out. It doesn't minimize our great win against Indiana though, and we still have two ranked teams coming this weekend to look forward to."
The Nittany Lions will return to their home courts next weekend for two more Big Ten conference matches and one non-conference match-up. On Friday, April 14 the blue and white will face Wisconsin at 4:00 p.m. On Sunday, April 16 Penn State will host its sixth double header of the season -- with Minnesota at 12:00 p.m. and Monmouth N.J. at 4:00 p.m.
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. Antonopoulos/Kohan (PSU) def. Kapshuk/Sevel (TEMPLE), 7-5
2. Lutschaunig/Dolidze (PSU) def. Dorash/Bohorquez (TEMPLE), 6-2
3. Z. Lieb/Galush (PSU) def. Narann/Mayer (TEMPLE), 6-4
Order of Finish: 2, 1, 3
Singles Results:
1. Artem Kapshuk (TEMPLE) def. Christos Antonopoulos (PSU), 7-5, 6-3
2. Florian Mayer (TEMPLE) def. Nika Dolidze (PSU), 6-3, 7-5
3. Thomas Sevel (TEMPLE) def. Zach Lieb (PSU), 6-4, 6-4
4. Gabriel Nemeth (PSU) def. Uladzimir Dorash (TEMPLE), 7-5, 6-0
5. Francisco Bohoruez (TEMPLE) def. David Kohan (PSU), 6-4, 6-3
6. Ben Lieb (PSU) def. Eric Biscoveanu (TEMPLE), 6-0, 6-1