IOWA CITY, Iowa – The No. 30 Penn State men's tennis team fell in conference action to the No. 48 Iowa Hawkeyes, 4-3, Friday night at the Hawkeye Tennis & Recreation Complex. Despite strong singles play from Penn State, the Hawkeyes (13-6, B1G 4-2) were able to end the Nittany Lions (14-6, B1G 4-2) seven-match win streak.
"I want to give all the credit tonight to an Iowa team that out competed us in some key positions tonight," said head coach Jeff Zinn. "We didn't start out well in doubles and it hurt us. We won 3 points relatively easy and unfortunately we just couldn't find that fourth point. I hope we can bounce back on Sunday against Nebraska."
"Tough loss," said associate head coach Paul Tobin. "To many opportunities that slipped by. Iowa played well and understood the importance of winning today. Need to bounce back quickly against Nebraska on Sunday."
DOUBLES
Penn State went 1-2 in doubles matches, dropping the doubles point to Iowa.
Christos Antonopoulos (Athens, Greece) and Christian Lakoseljac (King City, Ontario, Canada) grabbed the lone win for the Nittany Lions in doubles, defeating Joe Tyler and Nikita Snezhko, 6-1
SINGLES
Penn State pulled out three singles wins and pushed two other matches to a third set, but it was not enough to take down the Hawkeyes after losing the doubles point.
Ben Lieb (Newtown Square, Pa.) put the Nittany Lions on the board first, defeating Joe Tyler 6-1, 6-0. No. 95 Lakoseljac dispatched Jonas Larsen, 6-1, 6-2. Alp Sentay (Izmar, Turkey) grabbed a straight sets win over Morgan Lohan, 6-0, 6-1.
NEXT UP
Penn State will travel to take on Nebraska on Sunday, April 7 at 1 p.m. in its second Big Ten showdown of the weekend.
Doubles results:
1. #74 Will Davies/Oliver Okonkwo (IOWA) def. #8 Constant De La Bassetiere/Gabriel Nemeth (PSU) 6-2
2. Kareem Allaf/Jonas Larsen (IOWA) def. Ben Lieb/Matt Galush (PSU) 6-2
3. Christos Antonopoulos/Christian Lakoseljac (PSU) def. Joe Tyler/Nikita Snezhko 6-1
Singles Results:
1. Kareem Allaf (IOWA) def. #31 Constant De La Bassetiere (PSU) 6-3, 2-6, 6-4
2. #95 Christian Lakoseljac (PSU) def. Jonas Larsen (IOWA) 6-1, 6-2
3. Oliver Okonkwo (IOWA) def. Gabriel Nemeth (PSU) 6-3, 6-2
4. Will Davies (IOWA) def. Christos Antonopoulos (PSU) 7-5, 2-6, 7-5
5. Ben Lieb (PSU) def. Joe Tyler (IOWA) 6-1, 6-0
6. Alp Sentay (PSU) def. Morgan Lohan (IOWA) 6-0, 6-1
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