Tigers Drop Marathon Match in Top-50 Battle

Saturday, March 17

State College, Pa.

12:00 PM

Princeton University

Penn State

Davey Roberts had a straight-set win on court five against Penn State.

Photo by: Beverly Schaefer

March 17, 2018 | Men's Tennis

Battling for nearly five hours, the 42nd-ranked Princeton men's tennis team fell 4-3 to host and 48th-ranked Penn State Saturday, ending a seven-match winning streak.

"It was clearly a match that could've gone either way," Princeton coach Billy Pate said. "Very exciting college tennis battle as we knew it would be, yet a tough one to lose. After a disappointing doubles point, we eventually gained some momentum. Damian's (Rodriguez) win at number four after saving a match point really turned the momentum and gave us a big lift. It's just a game of inches and things didn't fall for us today. Penn State played well and is very good in their home venue. I'm pleased with the effort and fight we had down the stretch. We simply needed a better start to the match. We'll regroup and prepare for our matches in Florida this week."

Princeton dropped the doubles point for the first time since it last lost a match, Feb. 23 against Arizona, as Penn State won on courts two and three, both by 6-3 scores.

The Tigers then saw Penn State win on each of the top two singles courts to pull ahead 3-0, but Princeton climbed back into it with wins on three, four and five from Luke Gamble, Damian Rodriguez and Davey Roberts. That left the match up to court six, where Jimmy Wasserman battled back from being down 3-0 in the first set to win that frame 6-4. Opponent Matt Galush won the second set to force a third, and though Wasserman won the last game to force a tiebreaker, Galush took the breaker 7-5 to claim the fourth point for the Nittany Lions.

Princeton will head to Florida for its three-match spring trip, competing first Wednesday at South Florida at 1:30 p.m.

Doubles
1. Antonopoulos/Sentay (Penn State) vs. Gamble/Rodriguez (Princeton), 4-4, unfinished
2. Galush/Lakoseljac (Penn State) def. Payton Holden/Seggerman (Princeton), 6-3
3. De La Bassetiere/Nemeth (Penn State) def. Kaiser/Wasserman (Princeton), 6-3

Singles
1. Christian Lakoseljac (Penn State) def. Kial Kaiser (Princeton), 3-6, 6-2, 6-4
2. #94 Constant De La Bassetiere (Penn State) def. Ryan Seggerman (Princeton), 7-6(6), 6-3
3. Luke Gamble (Princeton) def. Gabriel Nemeth (Penn State), 7-6(1), 7-6(6)
4. Damian Rodriguez (Princeton) def. Christos Antonopoulos (Penn State), 2-6, 6-4, 7-6(8)
5. Davey Roberts (Princeton) def. Alp Sentay (Penn State), 6-3, 6-4
6. Matt Galush (Penn State) def. Jimmy Wasserman (Princeton), 4-6, 6-2, 7-6(5)

Order of finish: Doubles (2,3); Singles (2,1,3,4,5,6)