UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Penn State men’s tennis team put up a strong fight, but fell 6-1 to No. 46 Michigan State Friday afternoon inside the Indoor Tennis Center.
The Spartans earned the doubles point to take a 1-0 lead by way of a 6-3 win on court two and 6-2 victory on court three, despite Penn State’s top duo of Michael Wright and David Lindsay grabbing a 6-4 win on court one.
Michigan State won the first two singles points as Thanos Aristotelis defeated Marcus Schoeman 6-1, 6-2 in the second flight and Danial Rakhmatullayev took down David Lindsay 6-3, 6-4 in No. 4 singles.
Penn State got its first point in No. 3 singles as Reiya Hattori won by retirement of his opponent Ozan Baris shortly into the second set.
Michael Wright nearly kept the Nittany Lions alive at No. 1 singles. Wright dropped the first set, 7-5, to MSU’s Matthew Forbes and the second set was tied 6-6. It took an 11-9 tiebreaker for Forbes to take down Wright (7-5, 7-6 (11-9)) and clinch the match point for the Spartans.
After the match was already clinched in favor of the Spartans, MSU’s Mitchell Sheldon earned a 6-4, 6-2 decision over Eyal Shyovitz at No. 5 singles. In No. 6 singles, Kyle Chesman battled for a 7-6 (8-6) win in the first set against MSU’s David Saye before Saye answered with a 7-6 (7-3) win in the second set. Chesman and Saye played the third set as a tiebreaker, with Saye earning the 1-0 (10-4) win to secure the 6-1 match victory for the No. 43 Spartans.
The Nittany Lions remain home to host No. 43 Michigan Sunday at noon.