By Dylan Vazzano, TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – The Tennessee Tech tennis team is set to dust off the rackets for the first time in over 10 months with the start of its 2021 spring campaign Saturday afternoon. The Golden Eagles will take the quick trip east to Knoxville to tangle with No. 13 University of Tennessee in a 1:30 p.m. CT contest at the Goodfriend Tennis Center.
All matches played inside the Goodfriend Tennis Center will be played without fans, per SEC COVID-19 protocols. Live stats will be available. Click here to view.
A look at Tennessee Tech
Tech's season opener comes on the heels of a canceled fall campaign and an abbreviated 2020 spring season that saw the Golden Eagles play nine non-conference matches before the rest of the year was shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Tech was last spotted on the courts on Mar. 7 in Cookeville with a 7-0 triumph over Lipscomb.
The Golden Eagles wrapped up last spring with a 5-4 overall record, ending the year with wins in five of the last six matches, highlighted by a four-match winning streak at the time the campaign was called.
Tech enters 2021 having captured four straight Ohio Valley Conference Tournament championships as well as seven regular-season titles in the last nine full seasons. The Golden Eagles are the first four-peat tournament winner since Middle Tennessee claimed eight straight titles in the early to late 90s. TTU is the only team out of the current six league members that has ever won four championships in a row.
Three returning Golden Eagles put together winning singles records last spring, led by Elias Grubert's 7-2 ledger, while Carlos Vicente posted a 6-3 mark and Evzen Holis went 5-3 with a bulk of his work coming out of the top two slots. The Brno, Czech Republic native went a combined 4-1 out of the No. 1 and No. 2 positions.
A look at No. 13 Tennessee
Before greeting the Golden Eagles, the Vols will play host to Oklahoma earlier in the day with a 9 a.m. CT dual on the books. Tennessee was able to take aim in four fall tournaments, participating in the South Carolina's Gamecock Fall Invitational, Mississippi State's Bulldog Challenge, North Carolina's Tar Heel Challenge and the club hosted its own Volunteer Showdown.
UT put together a 74-18 (.804) overall singles record and a 33-13 (.717) doubles mark over the four autumn tournaments. Individually, Giles Hussey led the Vols with an 11-1 singles performance in the fall, while Luca Wiedenmann nearly mirrored that showing with a 10-1 singles record of his own.
Tennessee is coming off a 14-2 2020 spring season with a 2-1 SEC mark at the time the campaign was cancelled.
UT leads the all-time series, 15-0. The two squads last locked up on Jan., 15, 2018 in what was a 6-1 Vols nod.
Photo by Thomas Corhern
