Men's Tennis Southern Conference

GSU Falls at Georgia Tech, 5-2

ATLANTA, GA - Senior Jayraj Jadeja and freshman Juan Manuel Melian Puigventos displayed a promising start to the 2010 season dropping two Yellow Jackets in the season-opening match, but could not lead the Georgia Southern men's tennis team to victory. The Eagles fell in their season-opening match, 5-2, at No. 43 Georgia Tech Sunday afternoon (January 17). Georgia Tech pushed its 2010 record to 3-0 with the win.

"We played a good team today and fought hard," said head coach Justin Miles. "We have a couple of things to work on in practice before next weekend's matches to come out even stronger as a team. But I'm pleased with the fight the team showed on the court today to open the season."

Georgia Tech opened match play sweeping the doubles matches to secure the early match lead, 1-0. The Yellow Jackets clinched  the match win, 4-0, with three singles victories before the Eagles got on the scoreboard. Senior Jadeja and freshman Melian Puigventos fought hard at the No. 1 and 4 singles spots, downing Juan Spir and No. 112 Dusan Miljevic, respectively.

Starting at the No. 1 position, Jadeja battled back from a 5-3 deficit to tie the first set at 5-all. The senior broke Yellow Jacket Spir to take the first set by a 7-5 decision. On serve in the second set, Spir evened the match taking the stanza, 7-5, forcing a deciding third set. Jadeja, taking a 3-2 lead in the final set, held serve to a 5-4 advantage before securing the match win with a 6-4 final set.

Sweeping No. 112 Miljevic in the opening set, newcomer Melian Puigventos shined in his first collegiate regular season match. The Eagle easily captured the first set over Miljevic, 6-0, and dominated in the second set. Miljevic took three games from Melian Puigventos, but Georgia Southern reigned victory as Melian Puigventos set the overall match score 4-2 with a straight set victory after a 6-3 second set win.

Freshman Matthijs Verdam brought the sixth seed match into a super tiebreak after bouncing back from one set down. Verdam rebounded from dropping the first set, 6-2, to Magin Ortiga, by taking the second, 7-5. Ortgia proved victorious in the super tiebreak, 10-3, thereby taking the match and setting the final score, 5-2.

Georgia Southern returns to the court and continues this four-game season-opening road swing at Florida State and Florida Gulf Coast, Saturday, January 23. Match times are to be determined.