By Dylan Vazzano, TTU Sports Information Coordinator
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – Halfway through and the Tennessee Tech tennis team is still perfect.
The Golden Eagles met the midpoint of their Ohio Valley Conference slate in unblemished fashion, downing Eastern Kentucky 5-2 Saturday afternoon to move to 3-0 in conference play. TTU (5-10, 3-0) has now won 26-straight OVC regular season matches and jumps to 31-1 in the last 32 contests played at Tech Tennis Courts.
Despite dropping their first two points of conference play after back-to-back 7-0 wins over Eastern Illinois and Austin Peay, the Golden Eagles still flourished at the top of the lineup behind an Eduardo Mena victory in the No. 1 slot.
The 58th-ranked player in the country seized his sixth-straight singles win after registering a 6-3, 6-3 nod over Ramon Van Flymen in the top position. Mena, the two-time OVC Player of the Year, is now 24-1 in his career in conference play.
Gonzalo Garcia, Riku Kubota and Arthur Justo joined Mena in the win column, as the Tech trio provided the Golden Eagles with a powerful punch at the bottom of the TTU lineup. Garcia bumped his singles mark to 8-7 this spring thanks to a 6-3, 6-1 victory against Gabriel Ruiz in the No. 4 slot, while Riku Kubota collected a 6-2, 6-4 win over Juan Soria in the No. 5 spot and Arthur Justo captured a 6-3, 7-5 nod against Nicolas Castaldo in the No. 6 position.
EKU's Parth Aggarwal took down Wenceslao Albin, 7-6, 6-4, in the No. 2 battle and Guillem Sanchis slipped past Marc Mila, 6-7, 6-4, 10-6, in the No. 3 spot.
The Golden Eagles secured the doubles point for the third-straight match in OVC play behind wins in the No. 2 and No. 3 matchups. The Tech tandem of Wenceslao Albin and Riku Kubota powered past Parth Aggarwal and Guillem Sanchis, 6-4, in the No. 2 position and the combination of Eduardo Mena and Gonzalo Garcia collected a 6-1 win over Nicolas Castaldo and Joshua Piunti in the No. 3 slot.
EKU's Ramon van Flymen and Gabriel Ruiz registered a 6-2 win over Marc Mila and Arthur Justo in the top spot.
Tech will be right back at it, as the Golden Eagles will play host to Chattanooga Easter Sunday. The match, which was moved from its originally scheduled date of Feb. 17, is slated to begin at 1 p.m. CT.
Photo by Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
