Oct. 22, 2017
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State Nittany Lions had a hard fought day at the ITA Regional Championships in Lynchburg, Va. There are two players remaining in the tournament, competing in both singles and doubles.
Christos Antonopoulos (Athens, Greece) faced Finbar Talcott of William and Mary first and won 6-4, 6-3. In the next round, Antonopoulos took on Virginia Tech's Jason Kross and defeated him 7-5, 6-3. In his opening round, Alp Sentay (Izmir, Turkey) found success against Temple's Alberto Caceres winning 6-2, 3-6, 6-2. Sentay's second match proved to be a challenge losing to Old Dominion's Adam Moundir 3-6, 7-5, 6-0.
Ben Lieb's (Newtown Square, Pa.) got a win after Temple's Mark Wallner withdrew due to injury. In the following round, Lieb started off strong but was defeated William and Mary's Christian Cargill 3-6, 6-3, 6-2. Constant De La Bassetiere (Reims, France) beat Liberty's Eddie Gutierrez 6-4, 6-3 in the first round but dropped his second match 6-1, 6-0 to Longwood's Amadeo Blasco.
Christian Lakoseljac (King City, Ontario) had a tough match against Old Dominion's Jannik Giesse losing 6-3, 2-6, 6-2. Zach Lieb (Newtown Square, Pa.) took on Aziz Kijametovic of Old Dominion and was defeated 6-2, 2-6, 6-1.
Two Nittany Lions doubles pairs saw action today, looking to advance to semifinals. Constant De La Bassetiere and Christian Lakoseljac had a tough match against Virginia's Aswin Lizen and Matthew Lord but couldn't hang on and were defeated 8-5. Christos Antonopoulos and Alp Sentay faced Old Dominion's Jannik Giesse and Adam Moundir today and won 8-5 to advance onward.
"I'm really happy for both Alp and Christos," said head coach Jeff Zinn. "They played terrific doubles today and deserve to be in the semifinals tomorrow. They played as true veterans today in doubles which says a lot about how far they have come since their first tournament at Princeton. I was hoping we would get more singles players in the quarterfinals tomorrow but sometimes it doesn't go your way. I'm sure we will learn from these close losses and bounce back at the Big 10 indoors next weekend."
"I'm disappointed that some of the guys could not go deeper," said associated head coach Paul Tobin. "Christos and Alp are in doubles semifinals and Christos is still alive in the quarters, which is good. We're going to regroup before we head out to the Big Ten Indoors next weekend."
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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