KUTZTOWN, Pa. - The Bloomsburg University men's tennis team clinched the fourth, and final, playoff spot in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) tournament on Saturday afternoon with a 4-3 victory at Kutztown University. With the victory, the Huskies moved to 6-6 overall and 2-3 in the conference while the Golden Bears fell to 1-14 overall and 1-4 in league play.

Saturday's match was to determine who the fourth and final postseason team would be in the upcoming PSAC tournament as both schools came in with identical 1-3 marks in conference play. However, it was Kutztown that jumped out to an early 1-0 lead by winning two of the three doubles matches.

Sophomores Robin Luetzig (Hadamar, Germany/Furst Johann Ludwig Schule) and Nagid Walle (Willemstad, Curacao/Saint Andrews (Fla.)) opened the afternoon with a 6-0 victory at #3 doubles over Bobby Frankenfield and Eric Gibson but the Golden Bears answered with wins at #1 and at #2 to take a 1-0 lead in the team scoring. The loss suffered at #1 by sophomores Lucas Pedrotti (Caxias do Sul, Brazil/Sao Jose) and Bernardo Abreu (Belo Horizonte, Brazil/Rogedo) was just their third of the season as they fell to 12-3 overall.

Freshman Oliver Wiesemann (Jena, Germany/Colegio Alemán de Málaga, Spain) tied the match at 1-1 with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Frankenfield at #5 singles and Luetzig gave the Huskies a 2-1 advantage with an identical 6-0, 6-0 victory over Gibson at #6. Kutztown's Renato Santos answered with a win over Abreu at #2 to tie the match at 2-2 before Pedrotti put the Huskies a point away by winning in three sets over Nolan Perugini. Pedrotti dropped the first set, 6-4, but bounced back for a 6-1 win in the second set and then took the deciding set by a 7-6 (9-7) score.

Sophomore Benjamin Tauber (Bethlehem, Pa./Nazareth Area) clinched the win for the Huskies with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Benjamin Kelly at #4 as Bloomsburg punched its postseason ticket for the fourth consecutive season. Kutztown's Josh Carl finished out the scoring with a 6-4, 7-5 win over sophomore Guille Carranza (Sevilla, Spain/Escolapios) at #3.

The Huskies will play a pair of non-conference matches at the Burt Reese Tennis Center this week before their PSAC semifinal contest on Friday, May 3, also in Bloomsburg. This week, Bloomsburg will host Wilkes on Thursday, April 25, and West Liberty on Saturday, April 27.

BLOOMSBURG 4, KUTZTOWN 3
Doubles
1. Perugini / Santos (KU) def. Pedrotti / Abreu (BU) | 6-1
2. Carl / Kelly (KU) def. Carranza / Wiesemann (BU) | 6-4
3. Luetzig / Walle (BU) def. Frankenfield / Gibson (KU) | 6-0
Singles
1. Pedrotti (BU) def. Perugini (KU) | 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (9-7)
2. Santos (KU) def. Abreu (BU) | 6-2, 6-3
3. Carl (KU) def. Carranza (BU) | 6-4, 7-5
4. Tauber (BU) def. Kelly (KU) | 6-2, 6-3
5. Wiesemann (BU) def. Frankenfield (KU) | 6-0, 6-0
6. Luetzig (BU) def. Gibson (KU) | 6-0, 6-0