Junior Christian Lakoseljac earned Big Ten Athlete of the Week following a stellar performance in Penn State's championship win over LSU at the Jerry Simmons Invitational.
This marks the first time Lakoseljac has won the award in his career and the first time a Penn State player has garnered the honor since the 2015 season when Matt Barry was recognized.
Lakoseljac went undefeated through three doubles matches this past weekend while paired with fellow junior, Christos Antonopoulos. The duo first defeated Ivan Yatsuk and Sean Burnette of USF, 6-2, before going on to pick up another dominating win against Malik Bhatnagar and Nick Watson of LSU, 6-2. Lakoseljac and Antonopoulos' first match against the University of Louisiana at Lafayette went unfinished.
In singles, Lakoseljac earned two key wins for the Nittany Lions. He earned his first victory over Jan Galka of the Ragin' Cajuns in straight sets, 6-2, 6-3. During the second day, with the championship on the line, Lakoseljac defeated No. 114 Rafael Wagner in a three-set thriller, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, to clinch the tournament win for the Blue and White.
"Christian played so well this past weekend," head coach Jeff Zinn said. "He has battled injuries since the end of last season and has finally been able to stay healthy and continue his great play from a year ago. He is rounding into form and gaining his confidence back both in his strokes and his body. I cannot wait to see him continue to get better."
"It is an awesome feeling," Lakoseljac said, "but I could not be more proud of how all my teammates competed this past weekend. Hopefully, we can ride this momentum for the rest of our season."