March 21, 2005

Los Angeles, Calif. - Despite playing singles first due to the threat of rain, it was the doubles match-ups that proved to be the deciding factor, giving Princeton the 4-3 win over Loyola Marymount men's tennis Saturday.

Mike Wojnarowicz and Nico Terrien lost in straight sets at No. 1 and No. 2 to give Princeton the early 2-0 lead. But shortly after that, Linas Cicenas put LMU on the board with a 7-6, 6-1 win over Hans Plukas at No. 3 singles.

Next off the court were hard-fought but straight set wins for Matt Phillips and Ashton Politanoff at No. 5 and No. 6 to give the Lions a 3-2 lead.

The final singles point came down to senior Beau Berglund at No. 4 against Princeton's Andrew Lieu. Lieu won a highly-contested match 6-4, 7-6 to tie the score at 3-3.

Since the weather held, the teams then played doubles to decide the match.

"It was a great college tennis environment, with fans and players surrounding the three doubles courts under the lights," LMU Head Coach Nik DeVore said. "Princeton proved to be too tough in doubles and ended up sweeping 8-4 at No. 1, 9-8 at No. 2, and 8-4 at No. 3 to win the match 4-3. Princeton is fresh off a 5-0 win over 55th-ranked Purdue, so they will no doubt be in the national rankings this week. This was our fourth 4-3 loss this year, which makes it tough, but that is college tennis.

The Lions are now 4-9 overall, but seven of their nine losses are to nationally-ranked teams, and four of them by the score of 4-3.

"We just have to find a way to get over that hump," DeVore said. "It was nice to see Linas, Matt and Ashton compete so well today, but we have to find a way to get more than three guys to play at their best on the same day if we are going to win matches like this."

Next up for the Lions are matches against Hartford on Wednesday the 23rd at the LMU Tennis Center (2:00 p.m.) and Thursday the 24th against Dartmouth (1:00 p.m).

-GO LIONS-

PRINCETON 4, LMU 3

Singles
#1 Darius Craton def. Mike Wojnarowicz (LMU) in straight sets
#2 Sratha Saengsuwarn def. Nico Terrien (LMU) in straight sets
#3 Linas Cicenas (LMU) def. Hans Plukas 7-5, 6-1
#4 Andrew Lieu def. Beau Berglund (LMU) - 6-4, 7-6
#5 Matt Phillips (LMU) def. David Gopstein - 6-3, 7-6
#6 Ashton Politanoff (LMU) def. Ashwat Sarohia in straight sets

Doubles
#1 Plukas/Lieu def. Wojnarowicz/Phillips (LMU)8-4
#2 Saengsuwarn/Sarohia def. Berglund/Malet (LMU) 9-8
#3 Craton/Ted Mabry def. Politanoff/Cicenas (LMU) - 8-4