Princeton University Athletics
Saturday, February 28
State College, Pa.
12:00 PM
Princeton University
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at
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Penn State
Players Mentioned
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
Fourth Point Proves Elusive for Men's Tennis at Penn State
February 28, 2015 | Men's Tennis
With its highest ranking on record in 35 years, the Princeton men's tennis team was one point away from picking up another win over a ranked opponent, but the Tigers got stuck on three points and couldn't find the fourth Saturday at Penn State as the Nittany Lions rallied for a 4-3 win.
Princeton won the doubles point and took two of the first three singles matches to be decided, with wins coming from Zack McCourt and Alex Day. But with a 3-1 lead and matches still going on courts three, five and six, Princeton couldn't find the fourth point as Penn State took all three matches to go three sets. A win on court six pulled Penn State within 3-2, and though Josh Yablon was a tiebreaker away from clinching the match, his Penn State opponent Matt Barry fended off defeat to take the breaker 8-6 and square the match at 3-3. Aws Laaribi clinched it for the Keystone Staters, bouncing back from a second-set loss to Kial Kaiser to win the final frame.
Doubles
Singles
Princeton won the doubles point and took two of the first three singles matches to be decided, with wins coming from Zack McCourt and Alex Day. But with a 3-1 lead and matches still going on courts three, five and six, Princeton couldn't find the fourth point as Penn State took all three matches to go three sets. A win on court six pulled Penn State within 3-2, and though Josh Yablon was a tiebreaker away from clinching the match, his Penn State opponent Matt Barry fended off defeat to take the breaker 8-6 and square the match at 3-3. Aws Laaribi clinched it for the Keystone Staters, bouncing back from a second-set loss to Kial Kaiser to win the final frame.
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(23) Princeton (9-3) at (39) Penn State (5-7) Feb. 28, 2015 • State College, Pa. |
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Doubles
| 1 | Colautti/McCourt (P) | |
Laaribi/Stakhovsky (PS) | 8-6 |
| 2 | Luke Gamble/Diego Vives (P) | |
Michael Reilly/Trkulja (PS) | 8-4 |
| 3 | Day/Yablon (P) | |
Barry/Christian Lutschaunig (PS) | 8-5 |
Singles
| 1 | (124) Zack McCourt (P) | |
Alex Fennell (PS) | 6-3, 7-6(3) |
| 2 | Tom Colautti (P) | |
(121) Leonard Skakhovsky (PS) | 6-3, 6-3 |
| 3 | Josh Yablon (P) | |
Matt Barry (PS) | 6-7(6), 6-4, 7-6(6) |
| 4 | Alex Day (P) | |
Roman Trkulja (PS) | 6-4, 6-4 |
| 5 | Kial Kaiser (P) | |
Aws Laaribi (PS) | 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 |
| 6 | Dan Richardson (P) | |
Tomas Hanzlik (PS) | 6-2, 6-0 |
| Next match: vs. Buffalo, Sunday, Mar. 1, 10 a.m. & vs. Monmouth, Sunday, Mar. 1, 3 p.m., Jadwin Gym |
| Match notes: Josh Yablon had two match points in the third-set tiebreaker at 6-4 ... the match was played on four courts, with the fifth and sixth singles matches going on court once earlier singles matches finished ... both coaches agreed to play eight-game pro sets for doubles with no ad and singles with no ad ... Princeton now leads the series 20-8, but Penn State has taken eight of the last 10 and each of the last three; Princeton last win in the series was in 2011, 4-3. |
| Order of finish: Doubles: 3,2,1; Singles: 2,4,1,6,3,5 |
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Coach Billy Pate on the match: "As expected, it was a tough, hard-fought, closely contested match today. We did a great job in doubles and getting out to a solid lead of 3-1 in the match. However, we had our chances to secure the fourth point and just didn't quite make it happen. Penn State really did a good job of hanging around and not going away. They're a good team and played well, but it's a disappointing one for us. Most important, however, is for our team to learn from this and bounce back tomorrow in a doubleheader at home." |
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