April 26, 2018
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Two Nittany Lions were awarded Big Ten All-Conference honors Thursday. Junior Constant De La Bassetiere (Reims, France) took home a First-Team All-Big Ten award. Christian Lakoseljac (King City, Ontario) was honored with a Second-Team All-Big Ten award.
De La Bassetiere earns All-Conference honors for the third time in his three years at Penn State. In 2016 and 2017, De La Bassetiere was named to Second-Team All-Big Ten.
In Big Ten play, De La Bassetiere had six wins. This spring, De La Bassetiere secured big points against Purdue, Northwestern and Iowa. For the spring season, the junior went 14-7.
Lakoseljac earned his first All-Conference award as a sophomore. In Big Ten play, Lakoseljac had six wins. He helped Penn State by winning important points against Wisconsin, Iowa and Northwestern. Lakoseljac went 15-7 throughout the dual season.
Both De La Bassetiere and Lakoseljac have played at first and second singles all spring after a successful tournament season in the fall.
Christos Antonopoulos (Athens, Greece) was this year's Sportsmanship Award Honoree from Penn State. The award goes to a member of each team who displayed positive sportsmanship throughout the year.
"I'm so excited and proud of these guys," said head coach Jeff Zinn. "This is the first time Christian [Lakoseljac] has been honored, which is awesome. This is the third time Constant [De La Bassetiere] has been honored and as a junior that is impressive. These awards bode well for their skills and sportsmanship. It shows the ability they have to compete at the highest level. As a program, we're extremely proud, but also as head coaches this is what you hope for. They represent us well and I couldn't be happier or prouder of them."
The Nittany Lions, led by head coach Jeff Zinn and associate head coach Paul Tobin, meet Purdue today at 3:00 p.m. in the first round of the Big Ten tournament.
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