PENSACOLA, Fla. - A lot of college students love to head to
Florida for spring break. The Tennessee Tech tennis teams are no
different. Both teams played a match against Div. II powerhouse
West Florida. The men picked up a 4-3 win over the no. 9 ranked
Argos while the women fell 6-1.
"We played both matches very tough," said head coach Dan
Silverstein. "While our women lost, they were in every point on
every court. The men played some extremly good tennis to beat a
team on the caliber of West Florida."
The men got things started a little rough loosing the doubles
point.
Sophomores Dean O'Brien and Josh Girling got the lone victory at
the top doubles spot 9-7 over Andrey Pozhidaey and Nathan
Rosenfeld. The number two and three doubles matches came down to
the last game with the Golden Eagles falling 6-8 at number two
while going to a tie-breaker at number three 8-9 (5-7).
Singles however would be the strong point for Tech as Tech won four
of the six singles matches to clinch the win.
O'Brien, who remains undefeated this spring, picked up a straight
sets win over Poshidaey, 6-2, 6-1. Freshman Alex Chen picked up his
win at the number two slot over No. 50 Patrick Bateman, 6-2, 6-2.
While fellow freshman Oscar Pachon picked up another straight sets
win at number five, sophomore Mario Gutierrez had a little tougher
time at nubmer six with a three set win over Mike Lue, 6-3, 3-6,
6-3.
"We had a good week of practice before this match," Silverstein
said. "The guys really wanted this win and their performance proved
that.
The women's tennis team had a litle bit rougher time in the
sunshine state, falling to the number six ranked team in Div.
II.
The Argos swept through doubles matches to stake the early lead.
Sophomore Katie Barnhill and Kelly Holtzhausen fell to the No. 24
ranked doubles duo of Suzana Cavalcante and Paulina Ojeda, 8-5.
Holtzhausen picked up the win at the top singles spot in straight
sets, giving up only three games during the entire match, 6-0,
6-3.
The Tech men (2-4) will next be in action when they travel to ACC
foe Georgia Tech on March 17 with match time at 2 p.m. The Tech
women (1-3) will have one more day between matches when they will
travel to UT Chattanooga for a double duel-match against the Mocs
with the men on March 18. Match time for both matches against UTC
is slated for 12 p.m.