April 7, 2018
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The No. 48 Penn State men's tennis team faced Nebraska today at the Indoor Tennis Center. The Lions knocked off the Cornhuskers, 6-1.
In doubles, the Lions easily clinched the point. Constant De La Bassetiere (Reims, France) and Gabriel Nemeth (Brasilia, Brazil) knocked off Micah Klousia and William Grattan-Smith, 6-2. Christian Lakoseljac (King City, Ontario) and Ben Lieb (Newtown Square, Pa.) clinched the doubles point for the Lions with a 6-3 win over Dylan Bednarczyk and Chris Dean. Alp Sentay (Izmar,Turkey) and Christos Antonopoulos' (Athens, Greece) match went unfinished, 5-3, against No. 81 Linus Erhart and Toby Boyer.
The Lions went 5-1 in singles. On court one, Lakoseljac's multiple service aces propelled him to a 6-4, 6-4 win over Boyer. De La Bassetiere knocked off Bednarczyk with ease, 6-1, 6-2. Nemeth's precisions shots led him to a 6-1, 6-2 win over Klousia. Ben Lieb found his rhythm and dominated Isaac Nortey, 6-2, 6-0. Sentay notched his win against Grattan-Smith in tiebreak, 6-0, 3-6, 1-0 (3). Antonopoulos fell in a tightly contested match against Erhart, 1-6, 6-4, 6-2.
"This is one of our better matches this season," said head coach Jeff Zinn. "We played well. We had a really good week of practice and I think that helps when you have four good days of practice and you come out and play. We were prepared to play and if we continue to do that I think good things will happen. Nebraska is always tough team to play. They've done well this year. On our home courts, we have to take care of our home court advantage and today we did. Hopefully that'll stay true for tomorrow."
"This is the most focused this team has been all year," said associate head coach Paul Tobin. "Nebraska took the doubles point as well as several three-set matches against top-ranked Illinois last week so we were obviously concerned. Coming into this, the guys were prepared and it showed. We have no downtime and Iowa is good so we need to be equally prepared."
The Lions are now 12-9 (2-4 B1G) on the season and remain undefeated at home. The team is back in action tomorrow, Sunday, April 8, when they take on the Iowa Hawkeyes at 11:00 a.m.
A link to live stats for tomorrow's match will be posted on Facebook and Twitter prior to the match.
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Doubles Results:
1. A. Sentay/C. Antonopoulos (PSU) vs. No. 81 L. Erhart/T. Boyer (NEB) 5-3, unfinished
2. C. De La Bassetiere/G. Nemeth (PSU) def. M. Klousia/W. Grattan-Smith (NEB) 6-2
3. C. Lakoseljac/B. Lieb (PSU) def. D. Bednarczyk/C. Dean (NEB) 6-3
Order of finish: 2, 1
Singles Results:
1. Christian Lakoseljac (PSU) def. Toby Boyer (NEB) 6-4, 6-4
2. Constant De La Bassetiere (PSU) def. Dylan Bednarczyk (NEB) 6-1, 6-2
3. Linus Erhart (NEB) def. Christos Antonopoulos (PSU) 1-6, 6-4, 6-2
4. Gabriel Nemeth (PSU) def. Micah Klousia (NEB) 6-1, 6-2
5. Ben Lieb (PSU) def. Isaac Nortey (NEB) 6-2, 6-0
6. Alp Sentay (PSU) def. William Grattan-Smith (NEB) 6-0, 3-6, 1-0 (3)
Order of finish: 4, 1, 2, 3, 5, 6