By Dylan Vazzano, TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – Rafael Tosetto smacked an exclamation point on the end of the regular season with another weekly honor to add to his rookie resume. For the second straight week and third time this year, the 5-foot-8 freshman was recognized as the Ohio Valley Conference's Male Tennis Athlete of the Week.
Tosetto was dominant in TTU's lone match of the week, a 7-0 victory over Tennessee State on Apr. 17 that pushed the Golden Eagles to a share of the OVC regular-season title. The Jacarei, Brazil native was near perfect in a 6-0, 6-0 win over Leandros Misdrachis in the No. 1 singles clash and also teamed up with fellow freshman Lucca Silva en route to a 6-0 nod in the No. 3 doubles matchup.
Tosetto wrapped up the regular season with four straight conference singles wins, all out of the top spot in the lineup. The dynamic rookie also ended the regular season atop the Tech leaderboard with 11 doubles victories.
Tosetto and the rest of the purple and gold will be in Nashville over the weekend for the OVC Tournament. The Golden Eagles enter the field of six as the No. 1 seed behind the club's seventh regular-season championship in the last nine years. Tech heads to Nashville having won the last three OVC Tournaments.
By virtue of their top seed, the Golden Eagles received a first-round bye straight to the semifinals. Tech will square off with the winner of No. 4 Austin Peay and No. 5 Eastern Illinois on Saturday, Apr. 27 from the Centennial Sportsplex. The match is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. CT.