KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The Tennessee Tech tennis team (2-3) waged a battle with Tennessee Saturday afternoon inside the Goodfriend Tennis Center, forcing a third set in four of the six singles matches and capturing the two top spots, before the Vols (6-4) claimed a 4-3 victory.
Eduardo Mena and Alex Arovin outlasted their opponents in the first and second singles slots in three sets, and Guillermo Nicolas also posted a three-set win to earn points for the Golden Eagles. All three game after UT had claimed the match with a 4-0 lead.
The Vols got on the board quickly, posting wins in the top two doubles positions to earn the first point of the match and go up 1-0.
Preston Touliatos and Jack Heslin were first to finish, claiming a 6-3 win at No. 2 doubles over Eduardo Mena and Marcos Bernardes. At the No. 1 doubles spot, Luis Valero and Jack Chipanski, ranked 42nd nationally, had to work to earn a 6-4 victory over Alex Arovin and Alberto Estaban.
The No. 3 doubles contest was suspended with Srdjan Jakovljevic and Timo Stodder clinging to a slim, 4-3 lead over Jorge Alfonzo and Guillermo Nicolas.
Touliatos put the Vols up 2-0 when he walked off the No. 5 singles court with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Bernardes, who only joined the Golden Eagle roster this semester. It was Bernardes first collegiate match.
The UT lead went to 3-0 when the No. 3 singles point went to Stodder, who posted a 6-4, 6-3 win over Estaban.
Alfonzo won the second set of his No. 6 singles contest, forcing a third set before Heslin escaped with a 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 victory. That clinched the match with a 4-0 lead.
Tech didn't go quietly, though.
After dropping his first set, Nicolas roared back to a 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 win over Jakovljevis at No. 4 singles for Tech's first point.
In the featured court, Mena bounced back from a second set loss to post a narrow 7-5 4-6, 7-6 win over No. 125 Valero, making it a 4-2 score.
The final match to finish was on the No. 2 court, where Arovin won the first set, 6-3, and dropped the second to Schipanski, 6-2. In their decisive third set, it was a 7-5 decision for Arovin and the final 4-3 margin.
Coach Kenny Doyle's team heads to North Carolina next weekend for a pair of matches. On Saturday, Tech faces Radford on the Wake Forest courts at noon, and on Sunday the Golden Eagles play at the same site against the host Demon Deacons at 4 p.m.
