Sunday, 04/01/2012

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Nebraska Cornhuskers men’s tennis team got their first Big Ten Conference win on Sunday as they defeated the Penn State Nittany Lions, 4-3. The win improves No. 70 Nebraska’s record to 8-9 and they are now 1-3 in Big Ten play. With the loss, Penn State is now 11-7 with a 1-4 Big Ten record.

The Huskers got off to a great start as they swept the doubles point.

Playing on court No. 1 was Nebraska’s duo of Christopher Aumueller and Benedikt Lindheim, who downed PSU’s team of Taylor Cohen and Bryan Welnetz, 8-4. On court No. 2, NU’s duo of Robert Schulze and Andre Stenger were victorious over Penn State’s squad of C.J Griffin and Russell Bader, 8-2. Winning on court No. 3 for theHuskers was Eric Sock and Stefan Gollner who downed the PSU’s Christopher Hasyn and Tomas Hanzlik, 8-4.

With the match tied at 3-3, the match deciding point came down to singles play on court No. 2. Nebraska’s Lindheim fought back from being down 2-4 in the third set to defeat Penn State’s Bader, 6-4, 5-7, 7-5, and win the match for the Huskers.

After the match, Nebraska’s head coach Kerry McDermott talked about what Lindheim means to the Huskers.

“It came down to Benedikt to win it for us, and if I had to ask anyone to win it for us, it would be him and he came through,” McDermott said. “He was down 2-4 and came back to win in third set. The guy just knows how to win and came though for us.”

Playing at the No. 1 spot in the Huskers’ lineup was Aumueller, who was defeated by PSU’s Hanzlik, 6-4, 3-6, 6-0. The Nittany Lions also picked up a point on court No. 3, when PSU’s Cohen downed NU’s Stenger, 6-3, 6-3. Penn State’s third and final point came on court No. 4, when the Nittany Lion’s Welnetz downed Nebraska’s Schulze, 6-2, 6-4.

Nebraska’s other two singles wins came on courts No. 5 and 6. At the No. 5 spot NU’s Gollner downed PSU’s Chris Young, 6-4, 6-2. At the No. 6 spot, Nebraska’s Tom Blackwell was victorious over Penn State’s Christopher Hasyn, 6-2, 6-3.

After the match, McDermott was happy to see his team get their first conference win out of the way.

“It was good to get our first Big Ten win today,” McDermott said. “Hopefully this is the start of something good. It’s a great feeling to finally get our first win in the conference. Hopefully if can give us some momentum into the next match.”

The Huskers will be back in action on Wednesday, April 4 when they travel to Iowa City,Iowa, to take on the Iowa Hawkeyes. First serve is set for 2 p.m.

Doubles:
1. Aumeller/Lindheim (NU) def. Cohen/Welnetz (PSU), 8-4
2. Schulze/Stenger (NU) def. Griffin/Bader (PSU), 8-2
3. Sock/Gollner (NU) def. Hasyn/Hanzlik (PSU), 8-4
Order of Finish: 2, 3, 1

Singles:
1. Tomas Hanzlik (PSU) def. Christopher Aumeller (NU), 6-4, 3-6, 6-0
2. Benedikt Lindheim (NU) def. Russell Bader (PSU), 6-4, 5-7, 7-5
3. Taylor Cohen (PSU) def. Andre Stenger (NU), 6-3, 6-3
4. Bryan Welnetz (PSU) def. Robert Schulze (NU), 6-2, 6-4
5. Stefan Gollner (NU) def. Chris Young (PSU), 6-4, 6-2
6. Tom Blackwell (NU) def. Christopher Hasyn (PSU), 6-2, 6-3
Order of Finish: 3, 6, 5, 4, 1, 2