Blacksburg, Va. – At the end of day one at the Virginia Tech Invitational, Penn State men's tennis picked up a total of 22 individual points in head-to-head singles and doubles competition. The Nittany Lions picked up five singles wins to go along with two doubles victories to win seven out of 12 matches.
DOUBLES
The top-ranked doubles pair of Constant De La Bassetiere (Reims, France) and Gabriel Nemeth (Brasilia, Brazil) lost a hard-fought match to the at the No. 1 doubles spot to No. 43 Korsgaard/Ribeiro, 7-5
At the No. 2 slot, Matt Galush (Cary, N.C.) and partner Ben Lieb (Newtown Square, Pa.) dropped a tough decision to No. 42 duo of Donato/Harper, 6-2.
Christian Lakoseljac (King City, Ontario, Canada) and Christos Antonopoulos (Athens, Greece) earned a dominating win over Kros/Perez, 6-1, at the No. 3 position to secure two points each before heading into day two.
Freshman Jordan Nickerson (Boca Raton, Fla.) made his Penn State tennis debut with partner Alp Sentay (Izmar, Turkey), as they took down Bernstine/R. Kros, 6-3, to earn themselves a point apiece.
SINGLES
At the No. 1 singles spot, De La Bassetiere earned a win against No. 26 Mitch Harper, 6-4, 3-6, 6-2, to register eight points in the first day of the three-day tournament.
Lakoseljac lost a close match to No. 30 Jason Kros in the No. 2 slot, 5-7, 7-6(3), 6-1. Lakoseljac totaled two points at the finish of the day.
At No. 3, Nemeth defeated Alex Ribeiro 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 to get six points to cap off day one of play.
Antonopoulos was stopped by No. 118 Henrik Korsgaard 6-4, 6-4, at the No. 4 position. Antonopoulos tallied two points to end the day.
In the No. 5 match, Lieb got the win against Carlo Donato 6-2, 1-6, 4-6, to collect four points at the end of competition.
Galush eventually retired from his match against Evan Fragistas at the No. 6 spot, 6-3, 1-4, retired.
At No. 7, Sentay defeated Brandon Perez in straight sets, 6-4, 6-1, to earn two points. He finished the day with three total points.
To round out the end of the lineup in the No. 8 match, Nickerson beat Ryan Kros 3-6, 7-6(8), 1-0(9), to earn a point and bring his total up to three points on the day.
"This was exactly how you want to start the season," head coach Jeff Zinn said. "We could not have asked for more competitive matches between two really good teams. I was very pleased with our first day and we need to come back tomorrow and do the same thing."
"I am really proud of the guys today and how they handled themselves out there," associate head coach Paul Tobin said. "Playing Virginia Tech indoors at their place is never easy. Great job to our senior captains, setting the lead with their wins."
The Blue and White will face William & Mary tomorrow, with competition set to start at 2 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 Penn State Men's Tennis and follow our twitter @pennstateMTEN.