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Mark Selders

Men’s Tennis Defeated by Indiana in Road Clash

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — The Penn State men's tennis team (5-8, 5-8 B1G) dropped a 4-1 contest to Indiana (6-7, 6-7 B1G) in Bloomington on Saturday afternoon. 

"It's a disappointing loss," associate head coach Paul Tobin said. "I thought we put ourselves in a good position to win. We have difficulty closing out matches and keeping the momentum going. Some of the guys just need to dig deeper." 

DOUBLES

Indiana started off strong with a pair of doubles victories at No. 2 and No. 3. 

On court two, Tim Ruetzel (Munich, Germany) and Alp Sentay (Izmar, Turkey) fell to Bennett Crane and Luka Vukovic, 6-1. 

In a close match, the freshmen duo of Sam Bossem (Wimborne Minster, United Kingdom) and Miko Eala (Philippines/Manacor, Spain) came up short by a final score of 7-5 to Ilya Tiraspolsky and William Piekarsky. 

At No. 1, Christian Lakoseljac (King City, Ontario, Canada) and Christos Antonopoulos' (Athens, Greece) match against the Hoosiers' pair of Andrew Redding and Patrick Fletchall went unfinished with a score of 5-6. 

SINGLES

Indiana's momentum carried over into singles play as the Hoosiers rallied off three singles wins on courts one, five and six to clinch the match. 

On court three, freshman Miko Eala earned the lone point for the Nittany Lions as he defeated Hoosiers' Carson Haskins in straight sets 6-2, 6-1. With the win, Eala's singles record improved to 8-5 overall and 4-3 at No. 3. 

At No. 2, Bora Sengul's (Denizli, Turkey) match against Andrew Redding was left unfinished in the third set 4-6, 6-2, 1-5. 

On court six, Tim Ruetzel was in the middle of a tight 6-7, 1-2 battle against Indiana's Luka Vukovic when their match was halted. 

UP NEXT

The Nittany Lions complete their weekend road trip in West Lafayette against Purdue on Sunday, April 11. The first serve is scheduled for 11 a.m. ET. 

RESULTS

Indiana 4, Penn State 1 

Doubles results:

1. Patrick Fletchall/Andrew Redding (IND) vs. Christian Lakoseljac/Christos Antonopoulos (PSU) 6-5, unfinished
2. Bennett Crane/Luka Vukovic (IND) def. Alp Sentay/Tim Ruetzel (PSU) 6-1 
3. Ilya Tiraspolsky/William Piekarsky (IND) def. Sam Bossem/Miko Eala (PSU) 7-5 

Order of finish: 2, 3

Singles results:

1. Bennett Crane (IND) def. Christian Lakoseljac (PSU) 6-1, 6-2 
2. Bora Sengul (PSU) vs. Andrew Redding (IND) unfinished 6-4, 2-6, 1-5, unfinished 
3. Miko Eala (PSU) def. Carson Haskins (IND) 6-2, 6-1 
4. Tim Ruetzel (PSU) vs. Luka Vukovic (IND) 6-7, 1-2, unfinished 
5. Ilya Tiraspolsky (IND) def. Alp Sentay (PSU) 6-2, 6-2 
6. Vikash Singh (IND) def. Charl Morgan (PSU) 6-4, 6-4 

Order of finish: 1, 5, 3, 6

Check GoPSUSports.com for coverage of the Penn State men's tennis team during the season. Follow the team on Twitter @pennstateMTEN, Instagram @pennstatemtennis and on Facebook at facebook.com/pennstatemenstennis.