Golden Eagles bested by Belmont in regular-season finale
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – In a battle for the OVC’s regular-season title, Belmont held home serve with a 5-2 victory over the Tennessee Tech tennis team to capture the conference crown in the regular-season finale Saturday afternoon.
By Dylan Vazzano, TTU Sports Information
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – In a battle for the OVC's regular-season title, Belmont held home serve with a 5-2 victory over the Tennessee Tech tennis team to capture the conference crown in the regular-season finale Saturday afternoon.
With the loss, the Golden Eagles (6-12, 3-1 OVC) will be the No. 2 seed and earn a first-round bye in next weekend's OVC Tournament in Evansville, Ind. Tech will square off with No. 3 Tennessee State on Apr. 29 in Saturday's semifinals. The championship match of the single-elimination tournament is set for Sunday.
The Bruins (13-4, 4-0 OVC), who tied a ribbon on the regular season with a 10-1 record over the last 11 contests, started Saturday's bout with a win in doubles action behind a pair of slim 7-6 victories in two of the three tandem tilts. The duo of Jack Randall and Arthur Toledo bested Evzen Holis and Jun Sasagawa by one in the No. 2 position and the pair of Taisei Miyamoto and Alfred Wallin inched past Carlos Vicente and Rafael Tosetto by one in the No. 3 meeting.
The Golden Eagles did seize the top tangle thanks to a Mika Berghaus and Elias Grubert 6-3 triumph over Diego Castro and Tomas Luis.
Grubert continued his success during singles play with a victory over Toledo in the No. 1 matchup after the Bruin senior out of Belo Horizonte, Brazil retired following a Grubert 7-5 win the first set. Tosetto was responsible for the other TTU point behind a 6-1, 6-1 nod over Castro in the No. 5 get-together.
Tosetto's overwhelming showing was one of only two affairs that finished in straight sets, with a Wallin 6-2, 6-0 win over Holis in the No. 4 duel serving as the other one.
The final three solo clashes needed three sets to decide a winner and all thee of them swung in Belmont's favor, despite falling in the first set in two of the three tilts. Mika Berghaus picked up a 6-3 first-set win over Tomas Luis in the No. 2 showdown, but the Tavira, Portugal product bounded back to take the final two sets 6-3, 6-1 to claim the point.
A similar fate struck Andre Rodeia, who opened his No. 6 tangle with Taisei Miyamoto with a 6-1 set victory, but Miyamoto came back to secure a 7-5 second-set nod and a 6-3 third-set decision to pick up the point that officially gave Belmont the match with a 4-2 advantage.
Ian Cruz put the finishing touches on the contest with a 7-6, 6-7, 7-5 triumph over Carlos Vicente in the No. 3 slot.
With the regular-season now behind them, the Golden Eagles will gear up for an OVC Tournament run in Evansville in search of the program's seventh tourney title and first since 2019 in what was the last of four straight championships for the OVC's first four-peat since Middle Tennessee's run of eight straight back in the early to late 1990s.
Tech's OVC Tournament semifinals match against the third-seeded Tennessee State Tigers is set for Saturday at 2 p.m. CT. The Golden Eagles won the regular-season meeting between the pair of in-state foes with a 6-1 victory in Nashville.
Photo by Thomas Corhern
