October 21, 2011

A trio of Golden Eagles advance in the Ohio Valley Region

Abdukhailikov, Chen and Eremeev advance to the second round of the USTA/ITA Ohio Valley Region

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. --- The Tennessee Tech men’s tennis team made its presence felt at the USTA/ITA Ohio Valley Region, notching four total victories, including a trio of singles victories.

Senior Alex Chen earned his third singles victory of the fall season with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Lipscomb’s Chad Pierron. Chen will now take on Indiana’s Stephen Vogl in the second round.

Sophomore Vasily Eremeev notched his fourth singles victory of the fall season by the scores of 6-3, 6-3 over Wright State’s Evan Nueman and will take on Tennessee’s Mikelis Libietis in the second round.

Junior Syrym Abdukhailikov also tallied his fourth singles win of the fall season, defeating Xavier’s Mesa Mei 6-1, 7-5. He will square off with Tennessee’s Bryan Swartz in the next round.

Senior James Crawford faced off with Middle Tennessee’s Cameron Dickerson, but was unable to come away with the win as he fell 6-4, 6-2.

Freshman Ezequiel Gils also took a singles loss in the opening round, falling to Xavier’s Patrick Bandy 6-2, 6-1. He will now take on Wright State’s Lauri Makikalli in the first round of the consolation bracket.

Senior Justin Kirstein nearly pulled out his fifth singles victory of the season, he could not overcome Ball State’s Alexandre Brym as he took the three-set loss 6-2, 4-6, 6-4. Kirstein will now take on East Tennessee State’s Juan Ramirez in the opening round of the single consolation bracket.

In doubles action the pairing of Crawford and Gils opened with an 8-6 victory over Eastern Kentucky’s Philip Janz and Carles Pons. In the second round they took on the Purdue pairing of Evan Hawkins and Krisztian Krocsko, but were unable to take away the win as they fell 8-4.

The pairing of Abdukhailikov and Chen lost its opening match against the Indiana pairing of Will Kendall and Dimitrij Tasic 8-2, while the third Tech team of Eremeev and Kirstein lost to MTSU team of Matt Langley and Elfore Zito 8-3.