By Dylan Vazzano, TTU Sports Information Coordinator
Note: Sunday's match with Campbell in Cullowhee, N.C. has been cancelled.
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – The Tennessee Tech tennis team is right back on the road for a pair of clashes, highlighted by a first-place showdown at Jacksonville State to kick off the second to last week of the regular season.
With both squads sitting at 3-0 in the OVC, the Golden Eagles will tangle with the Gamecocks Thursday in Oxford, Ala. at noon CT, before heading to Cullowhee, N.C. for a Sunday 10 a.m. tilt against Campbell.
Tech (6-10, 3-0 OVC) will enter the key stretch suddenly surging with four-straight wins in its back pocket. The Golden Eagles just tied a ribbon on their 2018 home slate with back-to-back wins over the weekend, first knocking off Eastern Kentucky 5-2 on Mar. 31, before topping Chattanooga 5-2 on Easter Sunday.
No. 62 Eduardo Mena headlines Tech's recent heater with seven-consecutive singles victories, pushing the two-time OVC Player of the Year to a team-best 10-4 mark this season. Gonzalo Garcia and Riku Kubota are also scorching with four singles nods in a row. Garcia posts TTU's second best singles record at 9-7, while the 6-foot-3 freshman leads the Golden Eagles with an 8-4 doubles mark.
Tech has outscored its conference opponents 19-2 in the trio of OVC tilts and heads into Thursday's showdown with Jacksonville State on a 26-match conference regular season winning streak.
The Gamecocks (13-2, 3-0) have won nine of their last 10 and have also outscored their conference opponents 19-2 in the club's three OVC matches played. Joaquin Vallejo leads the team with an 11-2 singles record, all out of the No. 3 spot. Guillermo Agost is 10-2 this season, posting a 1-0 record out of the No. 2 position, a 6-1 mark out of the No. 4 slot and a 3-1 record out of the No. 5 spot. JSU's No. 1 player, Aljaz Kaplja, is 7-6 this spring.
The Golden Eagles lead the all-time series 13-5 with the Gamecocks and have won nine of the last 10.
Photo by Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
