Middle Tennessee 6, Chattanooga 1
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s tennis team dropped its spring season opener at Middle Tennessee today. The Mocs won the doubles point but fell to the Blue Raiders 6-1 in Nashville, Tenn.
MTSU took the first doubles match when Robin Riethmueller and Dima Zyhmantovich scored a 6-1 win over senior Pavels Grigorjevs and junior Gino Delavalle at No. 3. The Mocs came back with junior John Peacey and sophomore Lucas Plesky’s 6-3 win over Ben Davis and Ettore Zito at No. 1. Chattanooga secured the point when juniors Nick Wingord and Luke Saunders closed out Yannick Born and victor Hoang (6-4) at No. 2.
The 1-0 lead was short-lived for Chattanooga. Both Grigorjevs and sophomore Nic Wilson are top-6 players who could not go in singles today due to nagging injuries. As a result, the Mocs dropped all six singles in straight sets.
Saunders put up the biggest fight of the day. He lost (6-4, 6-3) to Zyhmantovich in a tough battle at No. 3.
UTC stays on the road for a visit to No. 6 North Carolina on Monday. Match time is set for 10:00 a.m. in Chapel Hill, N.C. A link for live scoring is available on the men’s tennis schedule page on GoMocs.com. Chattanooga opens its home schedule on Saturday, Jan. 24, when it hosts Austin Peay at 1:00 p.m. at the Hixson Racquet Club.
South Carolina 5, Furman 2
COLUMBIA, S.C. – The No. 27 South Carolina Gamecocks handed Furman a 5-2 loss Saturday in men’s tennis action at the USC Fieldhouse in Columbia, S.C.
The Gamecocks (2-0) won the doubles point to open the match. Kyle Koch and Thiago Pinheiro teamed up to down Paladin senior Matt Browne and junior Ben Horst, 6-2, at flight one, and Andrew Adams and Andrew Schafer beat senior Jacob Behal and freshman Stefan Rhodes, 6-1, in the number three match-up. The flight two match was unfinished, with Thomas Mayronne and Harrison O’Keefe leading sophomore Adam Steryous and freshman Cameron Green, 5-3.
In singles play, Furman picked up two wins, as Steryous bested #71 Pinheiro, 4-6, 7-5, 1-0 (12-10) in the top-seeded matchup, and Green topped O’Keefe, 3-6, 6-4, 1-0 (10-6) at flight five.
South Carolina clinched the match with four singles points. #118 Koch defeated Browne, 6-3, 6-3, at flight two, and Adams downed Behal, 6-2, 6-1, at number three. Schafer, ranked 83rd nationally, beat Horst, 6-0, 6-4, at flight four and Mayronne posted a 6-3, 6-4 win versus Rhodes at number six.
Furman (0-4) will play at Georgia Tech next Saturday at noon.
Wake Forest 7, ETSU 2
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (Jan. 17, 2015) - For the second time in as many days, the ETSU men's tennis team went toe-to-toe with a ranked opponent. ETSU fell to No. 20 Wake Forest, 7-2, Saturday on the Demon Deacons' home court.
The Demon Deacons (2-0), who advanced to the second round of last season's NCAA Tournament, began the day by taking three of the four doubles matches to claim the doubles point. Later on, Wake Forest came away with wins in six singles spots in order to clinch the victory.
ETSU refused to go down without a fight, with Diego Nunez, Ismael Merino, and Ricardo Pabon suffering first-set losses in singles play by narrow 7-6 margins. Nunez took No. 52 Jon Ho to the wire, with Ho capturing a 7-6, 7-5 win at No. 3 singles.
After dropping his opening set, Pabon responded by taking the second set, 6-4, and the tiebreaker, 10-6, to win the No. 7 singles spot versus Sam Bloom. Teammate Sebastian Yllera was responsible for the Buccaneers' (0-2) other win of the day. Similar to Pabon, Yllera dropped his opening set before rallying to win in a third-set tiebreak versus Keivon Tabrizi.
In doubles play, Merino and Nunez teamed up to defeat Skander Mansouri and Keivon Tabrizi at the No. 1 spot. The duo's victory came just one day after a notable, season-opening win over North Florida's 28th-ranked tandem of Jack Findel-Hawkins and Norbert Nemcsek.
ETSU will continue non-conference play next weekend as the Bucs travel to the Pacific Northwest to take on No. 64 Washington, Wisconsin, and Portland in Seattle, Wash.