Winston-Salem, N.C. – Winning the doubles point proved not to be enough for Penn State men's tennis as East Tennessee State came away with the 4-2 victory at ITA Kickoff Weekend.
"I thought we played better than we did yesterday," heat coach Jeff Zinn said. "I am happy that we competed well against two quality teams. I am going to chalk the loss up to the fact that it is the beginning of the season. We are giving away too many opportunities. We have to go back to the drawing board and figure out how we can win these close points."
"We watched East Tennessee State give Wake Forest a battle and we didn't take this match lightly," associate head coach Paul Tobin said. "We certainly had opportunities to close out matches and just let it slip away. We're still in the early stages of our season and it's better we work out the kinks now than later."
DOUBLES
The Nittany Lions struck first, clinching the closely contested doubles point on court two.
The No. 33-ranked pair of Christian Lakoseljac and Christos Antonopoulos easily defeated Juan Lugo and Yusuf Khamis in the top lineup spot, 6-2.
Gabriel Nemeth and Alp Sentay clinched the first point of the match in a battle over Frazier Rengifo and Chris Mikrvas, 7-5.
SINGLES
The Nittany Lions fought in singles competition, taking two matches to three sets and one going unfinished. However, the effort was not enough as the Buccaneers took victories on courts one, two, three and six to clinch the match win.
Gabriel Nemeth was the only player to win his singles match, defeating Thiago Pernas in straight sets, 6-1, 6-2.
UP NEXT
The Nittany Lions will make their 2020 Happy Valley debut against Cleveland State Thursday, Jan. 30 at 6 p.m.
RESULTS
East Tennessee State 4, Penn State 2
Doubles results:
1. No. 33 Christian Lakoseljac/Christos Antonopoulos (PSU) def. Juan Lugo/Yusuf Khamis (ETSU) 6-2
2. Gabriel Nemeth/Alp Sentay (PSU) def. Frazier Rengifo/Chris Mikrvas (ETSU) 7-5
3. Miguel Este/Dimitri Badra (ETSU) def. Charl Morgan/Ismail Saadi (PSU) 6-2
Singles results:
1. Yusuf Khamis (ETSU) def. Christian Lakoseljac (PSU) 7-5, 7-6 (7-2)
2. Frazier Rengifo (ETSU) def. Charl Morgan (PSU) 6-4, 6-0
3. Juan Lugo (ETSU) def. Christos Antonopoulos (PSU) 2-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2
4. Gabriel Nemeth (PSU) def. Thiago Pernas (ETSU) 6-1, 6-2
5. Chikaya Sato (PSU) vs. Dimitri Badra (ETSU) 7-7 (7-1), 6-3, 4-2, unfinished
6. Miguel Este (ETSU) def. Ismail Saadi (PSU) 6-2, 7-6 (8-6)
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