Alabama Men’s Tennis Off to Best Start Since 2003 After Defeating Penn State, 4-0

Sunday, January 28

Tuscaloosa, Ala.

1 p.m. CT

Alabama

Penn State

Alabama Men’s Tennis Off to Best Start Since 2003 After Defeating Penn State, 4-0

1/28/2018 4:55:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score Photo Gallery Match Results (PDF)

The Crimson Tide improves to 8-0 on the year with another shutout win

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The Alabama men's tennis team is off to its best start since 2003 after shutting out Penn State, 4-0, inside the Roberta Alison Baumgardner Indoor Tennis Facility on Sunday afternoon.

"We had great discipline today," said head coach George Husack. "There were a lot of close matches this afternoon and our guys showed great discipline and mental toughness to push through and win for one another."

The Crimson Tide (8-0) shut out its fifth opponent of the year after holding the Nittany Lions (1-2) without a point.

The sophomore duo of Alexey Nesterov and Thibault Cancel started the day off by cruising past Antonpoulos/Sentay, 6-2. After freshman Riccardo Roberto and Zhe Zhou fell in a heartbreaking, 7-6 (7-5), tiebreaker loss to Lieb/Nemeth, it was up to junior Mazen Osama and sophomore Edson Ortiz to come through for the Tide. The tandem trailed by three games early on before battling back to force a tiebreaker at 6-6. The two sides battled it out with neither side gaining more than a two-point advantage, until Ortiz/Osama pushed through and won the tiebreak 10-8, to give the Tide the much-earned 1-0 lead.

In singles play, Nesterov cruised past Ben Lieb, 6-1, 6-2, to put the Tide up 2-0. Later on, freshman Patrick Kaukovalta moved past Christos Antonpoulos, 7-6 (7-1), 6-2, in just his second collegiate singles match. Moments later, sophomore Zhe Zhou put away Alp Sentay, 6-3, 6-4, to clinch the win for Alabama.

Alabama men's tennis will look to remain hot when they take on Tulsa in Tulsa, Okla., next Sunday, Feb. 4 at noon CT in its first road match of the 2018 season.

Alabama Results:

Singles:

1. Mazen Osama vs. No. 67 Constant De La Bassetiere, 7-5, 2-6, 3-0, unf.

2. Thibault Cancel vs. Christian Lakoseljac, 6-4, 3-6, 0-0, unf.

3. Patrick Kaukovalta def. Christos Antonpolous, 7-6 (7-1), 6-2

4. Zhe Zhou def. Alp Sentay, 6-3, 6-4

5. Edson Ortiz vs. Gabriel Nemeth, 7-6 (8-6), 2-1, unf.

6. Alexey Nesterov def. Ben Lieb, 6-1, 6-2

Order of Finish: 6, 3, 4

Doubles:

1. Ortiz/Osama def. De La Bassitiere/Lakoseljac, 7-6 (10-8)

2. Cancel/Nesterov def. Sentay/Antonpoulos, 6-2

3. Lieb/Nemeth def. Roberto/Zhou, 7-6 (7-5)

Order of Finish: 2, 3, 1

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