Golden Eagles face three matches in three days, starting Friday on a neutral court
With just two weeks remaining in the regular season, the Tennessee Tech tennis team faces three matches in three days this weekend, opening with a non-conference match on neutral courts followed by a pair of crucial Ohio Valley Conference bouts in Nashville.
By Rob Schabert, Assistant Athletic Director for Sports
Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. -- With just two weeks remaining in the regular season, the Tennessee Tech tennis team faces three matches in three days this weekend, opening with a non-conference match on neutral courts followed by a pair of crucial Ohio Valley Conference bouts in Nashville.
Tech will face USC Upstate Friday at noon at the East Tennessee State courts in Johnson City, Tenn., Belmont on Saturday at 10 a.m., and wrap up the weekend at Tennessee State at 1 p.m. Sunday. The match against Belmont, originally scheduled for the Wildwood Tennis Club in Brentwood, has been moved to Brentwood Academy due to a scheduling conflict.
USC Upstate (7-11 overall) had a three-match win streak snapped
Saturday by North Florida. The leader for the Spartans has been
Jamie Yates, a sophomore from New Zealand, who owns an 8-2 record
in the No. 4 singles spot. In the top rung of the ladder, Matthias
Kidler, a senior from Germany, has posted a 3-3 record and Ramon
Simonetti, a sophomore from Brazil, is 2-9. Kidler and Gonzalo
Blanco, a senior from Argentina, have produced a 7-3 record to pace
the Spartans in doubles play.
Tech and USC Upstate have met just once in the past, with the
Spartans taking a 4-2 decision in the 2010 season in a lengthy
match played indoors at the Cookeville Indoor Tennis Center due to
rain.
Belmont heads into the weekend riding a five-match winning streak.
After posting a 2-8 record in non-conference contests, the Bruins
are 5-0 in OVC play. Mauricio Antun, a junior from Brazil, leads
Belmont. He has compiled an impressive 11-4 record at the No. 1
singles slot and teamed with Marko Lovrinovic, a senior from
Coratia, to post a 10-0 mark at No. 1 doubles.
Tech owns a 12-7 advantage in the all-time series with Belmont,
but the series has been fairly even in the past few years. The
Golden Eagles were off to a 9-3 lead against the Bruins in the
first dozen meetings. Belmont has won four of the past seven
meetings, including a 4-2 contest last year in Paducah, Ky., that
eliminated Tech from the OVC Tournament after the Golden Eagles had
claimed a 5-2 win in Cookeville in the regular season.
Tennessee State is 0-11 this season, including an 0-5 record
against OVC foes. The Tigers host Jacksonville State Saturday
before weloming the Golden Eagles Sunday afternoon. The Golden
Eagles are 26-0 all-time against Tennessee State, winning all but
three times by blanking the Tigers. TSU notched one win in losses
in 1997 and 1998, and again in 2012.
The Golden Eagles are 3-11 overall and 2-3 in OVC matches, coming
off a 4-3 win over Austin Peay last week. Sophomore Oleksiy Arovin
leads Tech with a 12-2 record in dual matches in the No. 1
position, including a 5-0 record in the OVC. He comes into the
weekend having won 11 consecutive matches to improve his overall
singles record to 19-9 since September. Tech's top doubles team
pairs up senior Vasily Eremeev
and junior Artem Tarasov,
producing a 6-5 record in dual matches in the No. 2 spot. Arovin
and freshman Alberto
Esteban are 5-4 in the No. 1 doubles post.
