COOKEVILLE, Tenn. -- Tennessee Tech had a chance to clinch a
share of the 2011 Ohio Valley Conference men's tennis regular
season championship Sunday. All the Golden Eagles needed to do was
knock off preseason favorite and unbeaten Eastern Kentucky.
It didn't happen. The Golden Eagles, bidding farewell to seniors
Lloyd Harris (in photo) and Josh Girling in the team's final home
match of the year, weren't able to crack the EKU lineup in a 7-0
loss to the Colonels. EKU, picked in the preseason to win the
crown, finished the year with an unblemished 7-0 mark in conference
play and improved to 19-4 overall.
The Golden Eagles wrapped up with an 8-8 overall record and 5-2
within the league heading into the OVC Tournament in Paducah, Ky.,
next weekend.
Tech got one victory during the warm, three-hour match on the TTU
campus courts. Artura Santa Ruiz and James Crawford managed an 8-5
victory at No. 3 doubles over Nik Schroeder and Parul Verma.
Other than that, EKU staked wins in every other contest, including
four of six singles events in straight sets.
The Colonels nabbed the doubles point and a 1-0 lead in the match
with wins by Alex Das and Philip Janz at No. 1, and Hugo
Klientovsky and Carles Pons at No. 2.
In the singles portion of the afternoon action, EKU gained
straight set wins by Das at No. 1, Schroeder at No. 3, Janz at No.
4 and Verma at No. 5.
In the No. 2 battle, Golden Eagle Justin Kirstein waged a fight
with Klientovsky before bowing. Klientovsky took the tiebreaker,
7-6 (7-5), for the first set before Kirstein evened things in the
second with a 7-5 win. In the final set, Klientivsky outlasted
Kirstein, 14-12, in an epic confrontation.
It was a similar story at No. 6, which eventually went to Pons with a 10-3 in the third set over Crawford.
