Penguins Have Strong Showing at Cleveland State Invitational

by YSU

Wednesday, Nov 9, 2016 2:28 pm

Cleveland, Ohio - The Youngstown State men's tennis team had a solid performance at the Cleveland State Invitational over the weekend. Yossi Dahan led the way by advancing to the singles championship match in the top singles flight.

Matthew Kritzinger won the backdraw round of 32 while Luke Purser reached the finals of the backdraw round of 64.

Dahan dropped the championship match to Cleveland State's Nico Mostardi, 3-6, 6-3, 12-10 on Sunday. Mostardi was the top seed for the tournament. Dahan, who was 4-1 for the tournament, defeated teammate Thomas Rodrigues 3-6, 6-3, 13-11 in the semifinals to reach the final match.

Dahan defeated Case Western's Sidd Rajupet (6-1, 6-1), NIU's Bor Muzar (6-3, 6-3) and Butler's Temilope Adelakun (6-4, 6-4) in his first three matches.

Rodrigues won three straight before losing to Dahan in the semifinals. Rodrigues beat CWRU's Adam Collins (6-4, 6-3), NIU's Tom Hjertonsson (6-1, 6-4) and NIU's Georg Lunkvist (6-2, 6-1) to reach the semifinals.

In the backdraw round of 64, Purser reached the final before falling 6-4, 6-4 to Cleveland State's Colton Bluffington on Sunday. Purser lost his first match before beating teammate Alonso Lauz (6-2, 6-3), Case Western's Anthony Kanam (6-1, 6-1) and NIU's Erich Schuette (6-2, 6-4) to reach the backdraw final.

In the backdraw round of 32, Kritzinger finished first winning three of his four matches in three sets. In the final on Sunday, he defeated Butler's Adrian Mag 6-2, 3-6, 10-7. He won his first three matches starting with a marathon 1-6, 7-6 (17), 10-3 win over CSU's Ben Slade. He then had to beat MSU's Arun Ramakrishnan 6-3, 2-6, 10-3, before cruising to a 6-1, 6-3 victory over CW's Kevin Dong.

This was the final fall competition for the Penguins.