Oct. 20, 2017
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State men's tennis team began play today in Lynchburg, Va. for the 2017 ITA Atlantic Regional Championships, hosted by Liberty University.
The morning kicked off with doubles matches, in which Penn State had five teams competing. The duo of Constant De La Bassetiere (Reims, France) and Christian Lakoseljac (King City, Ontario) had a bye in the first round. Freshman Chris Kuhnle (Shoreham, N.Y.) and Noah Sutter (New York, N.Y.) had an impressive match defeating La Salle's Tomas Christian and Francesco Mowrey 8-5. Matt Galush (Cary, N.C) and Ben Lieb (Newtown Square, Pa.) faced Francisco Bohorquez and Uladzimir Dorash from Temple University and finished on top with an 8-4 win.
Christos Antonopoulos (Athens, Greece) and Alp Sentay (Izmir, Turkey) were successful defeating James Madison's Gonzalo Adis and Tate Steinour 8-5. The remaining team of Zach Lieb (Newtown Square, Pa.) and Gabriel Nemeth (Brasilia, Brazil) fought a hard battle against Liberty's Chase Burton and Sebastian Mermersky, but the Liberty duo came out on top defeating the Lions 8-6.
Singles play began in the afternoon in Lynchburg, with four players receiving byes for the first round. Zach Lieb had a tough first match facing Georgetown's Mac Rechan, but Lieb came out victorious defeating Rechan 7-6 (0), 6-3. Noah Sutter also had a successful first match defeating Brandon Wortkotter of Mount St. Mary's 6-3, 7-6 (1). Gabriel Nemeth was victorious for the blue and white in a 6-1, 6-3 showdown against George Mason's Isaiah Volk. Ben Lieb also finished his match well defeating Luke Ross of Georgetown 6-1, 6-3.
Yesterday, Chris Kuhnle began in the qualifying round and had success. The freshman defeated Morgan State's Lucas Krusinski 6-2, 6-3 in the round of 32. Then in the round of 16, Kuhnle came out victorious against Dominic Lea of Duquesne defeating him 6-3, 6-2. In the main draw event today, Kuhnle fought through a tough match, but Georgetown's Peter Beaty came out on top, defeating Kuhnle 7-6 (7), 3-6, 6-4.
"I was really pleased with today," said head coach Jeff Zinn. "I thought a lot of guys did really well to through the first round of the tournament. Sometimes the first round is the most difficult; it's when you really have to dig your teeth in. I was pleased with three of our doubles winning in the first round. Overall for the first day, I was really pleased with how well we did. Chris had a really tough match today, losing in three sets. But now tomorrow is a big day with two rounds of doubles and one round of singles so we have to push on and get through the next round."
"The guys did really well today," said associate head coach Paul Tobin. "So far, we're 9-3 and that does not include the four byes. We are definitely going to have to tweak things once the competition becomes stronger. Doubles could have been better despite the wins; we gave away too many games on loose points. But the guys are pumped for tomorrow's matches!"
The Lions will continue play tomorrow morning at the ITA Atlantic Regional Championships. Check back to GoPSUsports and our social media accounts for updates throughout the tournament.
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