Ann Arbor, Mich. – The Youngstown State men's tennis team opened play at the 2023 Horizon League Championships with a 4-1 victory over Tennessee State on Friday evening inside the Varsity Tennis Center.

The Penguins (13-10) advance to take on South Division No. 1 seed Belmont (19-5). The Bruins have 11 straight matches. YSU played its first tournament of the season in Nashville, which was hosted by Belmont.

It was a longer than expected day for the Guins as the match was previously scheduled to start at 3 p.m. However, with all the quarterfinal matches moved indoors, YSU and TSU didn't take the court until 7:50 p.m. The Penguins were able to tame the Tigers in under two hours to win their third straight HL postseason contest.

In the win over the Tigers, YSU won the first two completed matches to claim the doubles point and picked up three singles wins in straight sets to advance to the HL semifinals for the sixth consecutive time.

The Penguins won the doubles point with victories at No. 1 and No. 3. At No. 1, Clement Mainguy and Nathan Favier won by a score of 6-1 decision and at No. 3, Harry Fouzas and Laurentiu Mandocescu won 6-3 to clinch the point. At No. 2, the Tigers led 5-4 when the Guins clinched the contest.

In singles, Mainguy, Javi Gonzalez Pla and David Alvarez Moreno earned straight set victories. The Tigers (10-14) picked up on singles victory in the defeat.

At No. 5, Pla cruised to a 6-1, 6-1 win over Diego Britt-Alvarez while at No. 6, Moreno won 6-1, 6-4 over Pierre Copin. After the Tigers won their lone point of the contest at No. 4 singles, Mainguy finished off Daniel Carraballo, 6-1, 6-3 to clinch the match.

Tennessee State claimed first set wins at No. 1 and No. 3 singles in the contest.