COOKEVILLE, Tenn. -- It was a long, difficult day for Tennessee
Tech's Vasily Eremeev. In the end, it was also a very rewarding day
for the sophomore from Russia and his Golden Eagle teammates.
Eremeev earned the deciding point as Tennessee Tech edged Austin
Peay in a battle between the two unbeaten Ohio Valley Conference
men's tennis teams. Tech (8-7/6-0 OVC) took the lead in the
conference race with two road matches looming this weekend at
Eastern Illinois and SIU Edwardsville. Austin Peay (10-8/5-1 OVC)
slipped into a tie for second place heading into the final weekend
of the regular season.
The way the match unfurled, Eremeev faced a must-win situation at
No. 6 singles and things were looking bleak. He lost the first set,
6-3, to Iago Seffrin, and trailed in the second, 4-1. That's when
Eremeev put the pieces together.
"All of a sudden I started to feel the ball better and made my
shots," Eremeev said. "In the first set, I was just hitting it and
in the second set I was thinking too much. I got it back to 4-3,
and I realized what I needed to do to win. All of a sudden
everything was working. I was hitting shots and trying not to think
too much."
Eremeev won the next three points to capture the second set, 6-4,
and grabbed an early lead in the third set.
Meanwhile, everything else on the TTU campus courts was complete
except the No. 1 singles match, and it was slowly turning toward
the Govs. Eremeev was aware he probably needed his point for the
Golden Eagles to win. Seffrin made it 4-3 and Eremeev held serve to
make it 5-3. Seffrin also held serve to cut the difference to 5-4,
before Eremeev captured the deciding point.
It was the second tough match of the day for Eremeev, who teamed
with Artem Tarasov to claim a 9-8 (2) win at No. 2 doubles, part of
a sweep of all three doubles events for the Golden Eagles and a 1-0
lead. The duo downed John Storie and Jasmin Ademovic. At No. 1,
Syrym Abdukhalikov and Alex Chen defeated Sean Bailey and Dimitar
Ristowski, 8-6, while in the No. 3 spot, Alejandro Augusto and
Justin Kirstein cruised to an 8-3 win over Seffrin and Michael
Hriciste.
Aleksas Tverjonas got a quick start for APSU in singles play,
earning a 6-2, 6-1 win over Tarasov at No. 4 to tie the match at
1-1. Augusto answered with a 6-2, 6-2 win at No. 3 singles over
Ristowski to put Tech ahead, 2-1. It kept the freshman from Spain
unbeaten in OVC play at 6-0.
On the No. 2 court, Ademovic battled to a 6-4, 6-3 win over Chen
and once again the match was knotted at 2-2.
Senior Justin Kirstein also kept his OVC singles mark intact at
6-0 with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Storie in the No. 5 slot, setting the
stage for the final two points.
On the No. 1 court, Abduhkalikov raced out to a 5-2 lead in the
opening set before Bailey worked his way back to tie things and
eventually win in a tie-breaker, 7-6 (4). That's when Eremeev began
to turn his match around, and went on to win the point and the
match. It proved essential, as Bailey completed his comeback with a
6-2 win in the second set.