By Dylan Vazzano, TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – The Tennessee Tech tennis team is set to play its final road match of the regular season, as the Golden Eagles will head to Jacksonville State for a Saturday showdown with the Gamecocks at JSU Tennis Courts.
Tech (6-12, 2-1 OVC) enters the tilt red hot in conference play after carding back-to-back 7-0 OVC victories against Eastern Illinois at home and Austin Peay on the road. In TTU's latest clash in Clarksville on Apr. 7, the Golden Eagles dropped only one set against the Govs during singles play en route to a perfect 6-0 solo showing.
Rafael Tosetto, Carlos Vicente, Elias Grubert, Riku Kubota, Wenceslao Albin and Fanis Kontopoulos all picked up wins in the overwhelming victory over APSU that pushed the purple and gold to a 2-1 mark in OVC action.
Albin leads the Golden Eagles with nine singles wins this spring, including a perfect 3-0 mark during conference play. Gonzalo Garcia and Rafael Tosetto each have seven singles nods, with Tosetto claiming all of his victories out of the No. 1 spot in the TTU lineup.
Albin, Tosetto and Carlos Vicente sit atop the Tech doubles leaderboard with nine wins each.
A look at Jacksonville State
The Gamecocks (10-5, 3-0 OVC) sit in first place in the conference as the league's only unbeaten team with an unblemished 3-0 mark. JSU defeated Eastern Illinois 6-1, before securing back-to-back 4-3 victories with wins over Austin Peay and Belmont. JSU is most recently coming off a 4-3 non-conference loss Tuesday to Troy.
Guillermo Agost and Jordi Blanchar are the Gamecock singles leaders with identical 10-3 ledgers this spring. Agost has done all of his damage out of the No. 3 spot, while Blanchar has taken care of business at the back of the lineup with all 13 singles matchups out of the No. 6 position.
Joaquin Vallejo has been JSU's No. 2 singles competitor with a 9-6 record out of that position, and Aljaz Kaplja has been the only Gamecocks to appear in the top spot, posting a 6-8 mark out of the No. 1 position.
Kaplja and Sergio Lizarraga have also teamed up to go 8-4 out of the No. 1 doubles slot, while Vallejo and Alexander Vishnevskiy have flourished out of the No. 3 tandem spot with an 11-3 record in that position.
Tennessee Tech leads the all-time series with Jacksonville State 15-5. The Golden Eagles have won six straight heading into Saturday's match.
Photo by Tony Marable