UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Cleveland State men's tennis team continued its 2014 spring season Sunday afternoon, falling to a tough Penn State team, 6-1.
"This was a tough match for us today, they are a really good team and we just didn't have the answers for them," assistant coach Frank Polito said. "To start off the match we dropped a tough doubles point and we just didn't rebound after that. We definitely had some chances, but weren't able to capitalize on them. We have a few things to work on in practice this week, and will come out next weekend focused and ready to play."
The Vikings got off to strong start in doubles play against Penn State, but weren't able to keep up the pace, as CSU came away with just one doubles win. The win came at the No. 3 spot, as Jorg van der Vloet and Matt Ford posted a 6-4 win over a Nittany Lion duo.
Manuel Bellutti picked up CSU's lone point on the day, earning a comeback victory at No. 5 singles. After dropping the first set, 6-3, Bellutti responded by winning the second set 6-5 (4) and then pulled out an 11-9 tiebreak victory.
Cleveland State will close out its five-match roadswing next weekend, traveling to Binghamton (Friday, Feb. 7) and St. Bonaventure (Saturday, Feb. 8).
Penn State 6, Cleveland State 1
Doubles:
- Bader/Stakhovsky (PSU) def. Shabib/VanMeter (CSU), 6-4
- Reilly/Young (PSU) def. Kuelker/Bellutti (CSU), 6-1
- Ford/van der Vloet (CSU) def. Barry/Fennell (PSU), 6-4
Singles:
- Leonard Stakhovsky (PSU) def. Jorg van der Vloet (CSU), 6-0, 6-4
- Russell Bader (PSU) def. Matt Kuelker, 6-4, 6-5 (5)
- Alex Fennell (PSU) def. Ali Shabib (CSU), 6-3, 6-3
- Marc ColladoCastells (PSU) def. Joe VanMeter (CSU), 6-1, 6-3
- Manuel Bellutti (CSU) def. Michael Reilly (PSU), 3-6, 6-5 (4), 11-9
- Nika Dolidze (PSU) def. Matt Ford (CSU), 6-1, 6-4
