February 4, 2017 - UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; The Penn State men's tennis team finished up the first double header of the weekend today with a match against Lehigh University. This home opening weekend features matches against four different teams for the Nittany Lions, the next of which will be tomorrow afternoon at 1:00 p.m. where the Lions will face off with Cornell.
The Lions secured the doubles point early on for a second time today. Christian Lutschaunig (Richboro, Pa.) and David Kohan (Sydney, Australia) paired up again, this time to face Lehigh's Ethan Bogard and Colin Nardella. The Lutschaunig/Kohan team is undefeated in doubles today after winning 6-2 against the pair of Mountain Hawks. Christian Lakoseljac (king City, Ontario, Canada) and Nika Dolidze (Tbilisi, Georgia) teamed up to take down Tyler Hansen and Dylan Karchere-Sun in a 6-2 show. Matt Galush (Cary, N.C.) and Aws Laaribi (Rye, N.Y.) faced George Cooper and Christopher Auteri on court two, winning the match 6-5 (7-1).
Nika Dolidze won his singles match against Tyler Hansen today 6-3, 6-0. Zach Lieb (Newtown Square, Pa.) shut out Lehigh's Christopher Auteri 6-0, 6-0. Gabriel Nemeth (Brasilia, Brazil) overcame Jack Petersen today to win his match 6-1, 6-2. Henry Gordon (New Braunfels, Tx.) won 6-4, 6-0 against Lehigh's George Cooper. Marc Collado went head to head with Ethan Bogard from Lehigh and came out on top in an 8-2 result. David Kohan faced Colin Nardella in a hard fought battle that finished with a 6-1, 5-7 (11-9) win in a super tiebreaker for the blue and white.
"We did what we had set out to do for the first day of the double header," said head coach Jeff Zinn following todays shut out wins. "We wanted to come out with an aggressive mindset and take the action to our opponent. I thought we did a good job of that today, and I can tell that this week of practice helped us. I also feel that being on our home courts is an advantage. We know we have a tough battle tomorrow with Cornell and we need to play at our best to have a chance to win. Cornell is one of the best teams in the Ivy's this season and there's been a lot of buzz about them in the off season."
"Our guys needed these wins to get us pumped up to go against Cornell," said associate head coach Paul Tobin. "We played well against both Cleveland State and Lehigh, only giving up one set. I think we need to play better in doubles and not give away too many balls, the doubles point will be crucial for us going into bigger matches. We know Cornell will be a fight tomorrow and we need to come out ready to play."
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Doubles Results:
1) Kohan/Lutschaunig (PSU) def. Bogard/Nardella (LU), 6-2
2) Galush/Laaribi (PSU) def. Cooper/Auteri (LU), 6-5 (7-1)
3) Lakoseljac/Dolidze (PSU) def. Hansen/Karchere-Sun (LU), 6-2
Order of Finish: 3, 1, 2
Singles Results:
1) Henry Gordon (PSU) def. George Cooper (LU), 6-4, 6-0
2) Gabriel Nemeth (PSU) def. Jack Petersen (LU), 6-1, 6-2
3) Zach Lieb (PSU) def. Christopher Auteri (LU), 6-0, 6-0
4) Nika Dolidze (PSU) def. Tyler Hansen (LU), 6-3, 6-0
5) David Kohan (PSU) def. Colin Nardella (LU), 6-1, 5-7 (11-9)
6) Marc Collado (PSU) vs. Ethan Bogard (LU), 8-2
Order of Finish: 4, 3, 2, 1, 6, 5