By Dylan Vazzano, TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – The postseason has arrived for the Tennessee Tech tennis team.
The Golden Eagles are off to Nashville for the 2019 OVC Tournament, eyeing a piece of history in this year's playoff run. With three consecutive tourney titles in its back pocket, Tech has the chance to become the first four-peat winner since the turn of the century.
The Golden Eagles (8-13, 4-1 OVC) enter the field of six as the top seed after claiming a share of the OVC regular-season title for the club's seventh regular-season crown in the last nine years. TTU's No. 1 seed also brings the purple and gold a first-round bye and a trip straight to Saturday's semifinals.
Tech will await the victor of No. 4 Austin Peay and No. 5 Eastern Illinois, a first-round battle Friday afternoon. The Golden Eagles will square off with the winner on Saturday, Apr. 27 at 2 p.m. CT from Nashville's Centennial Sportsplex.
The championship match is scheduled for Sunday, Apr. 28 at 2 p.m. from the Centennial Sportsplex.
TTU heads into the tournament on an absolute tear with four straight OVC victories after an early 4-3 setback by Belmont in the conference opener on Mar. 23. Not only did the Golden Eagles run the conference table after the loss to the Bruins, but Tech did not even drop a point in the quartet of contests, outscoring its opponents 28-0 during the impressive run.
Rafael Tosetto helped pave the way atop the Tech singles lineup, claiming four consecutive singles wins during OVC action. In fact, behind a 6-0, 6-0 win in the top singles spot and a 6-0 nod with Lucca Silva in the No. 3 doubles bout in the regular-season finale against Tennessee State on Apr. 17, Tosetto won his second consecutive OVC Male Tennis Athlete of the Week honor. The 5-foot-8 freshman took home three such honors in his rookie campaign.
Senior Wenceslao Albin is in the midst of putting the finishing touches on a stellar two-year Tech tenure, entering the OVC Tournament as the only Golden Eagle to post a perfect 5-0 OVC singles record. Overall, the Salliquelo, Argentina product leads the club with 11 singles wins.
Fanis Kontopolous (4-0), Riku Kubota (4-0), Lucca Silva (2-0) and Gonzalo Garcia join Albin as the only Golden Eagles to go undefeated in OVC singles play. Kubota and freshman Carlos Vicente are tied for third on the Tech leaderboard with eight solo nods, trailing Albin's 11 and Tosetto's nine wins.
Tosetto leads the doubles charge with an 11-5 record this spring, while Albin and Vicente complete the double-digit trio with 10 tandem wins apiece.
A look at Austin Peay
The Govs (6-14, 2-3 OVC) make their way to Nashville having dropped three of the last four matches of the regular season, including a 7-0 home loss to Tennessee Tech on Apr. 7. APSU's No. 1 singles competitor, senior Almantas Ozelis, has an identical 9-9 record to Tech's No. 1, Rafael Tosetto. Like the Golden Eagle rookie, all 18 bouts for Ozelis have come out of the No. 1 position on the lineup. Tosetto took the meeting between the two in straight sets with a 6-4, 6-2 win in Clarksville.
Junior Hunter Sanders has the second-most singles wins on the team with seven, performing primarily from the back of the Govs singles lineup with a 6-7 mark out of the No. 6 position.
From a doubles perspective, Ozelis is one of five Govs with a club-best six wins. Anton Damberg, Timo Kiesslich, Christian Edison and Chad Woodham accompany Ozelis atop the list.
Tech's 7-0 win on Apr. 7 pushed TTU to a 45-25 lead in the all-time series. The Golden Eagles have seized eight of the last nine meetings.
A look at Eastern Illinois
Like Austin Peay, the Panthers (13-14, 1-4 OVC) were also blanked by the Golden Eagles in a 7-0 loss in Cookeville on Mar. 30. Eastern Illinois heads to Nashville with wins in two of its last three contests with a 4-0 win at Tennessee State and a 5-3 nod at Martin Methodist College. EIU has had a lengthy layoff after falling 4-0 at home to Austin Peay in the regular-season finale way back on Apr. 12.
Junior Freddie O'Brien put together a sturdy regular-season resume with a squad-best 15-7 singles record, all out of the top spot in the lineup. In the matchup with Tech, the Surrey, United Kingdom native fell 7-5, 6-2 to Tosetto.
Mike Jansen was the only Panther to appear in the No. 2 singles spot throughout the spring, going 9-9 out of that position. Daniel Hernandez posted a 12-10 mark in the regular season, doing most of his damage out of the No. 3 spot with a 7-3 record in that slot. Logan Charbonneau is 11-9 overall, highlighted by a 3-1 mark out of the No. 4 position and a 7-5 ledger out of the No. 5 spot.
Charbonneau and O'Brien are the most formidable Panther doubles tandem with a 15-2 record, going 13-0 out of the No. 3 slot.
Tech's win over the EIU on Mar. 30 pushed TTU's record in the all-time series to 19-1.
Photo by Tony Marable
