By Dylan Vazzano, TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – A weekend of in-state travel is in store for the Tennessee Tech tennis team, as the Golden Eagles will hook up with a trio of schools from the Volunteer State on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. TTU will travel to No. 28 Middle Tennessee to tangle with the nationally ranked Blue Raiders on Friday, Apr. 14 at 1 p.m. CT, before the Golden Eagles will jump back into Horizon League action with a Saturday, Apr. 15 affair at Belmont beginning at 2 p.m. and a Sunday, Apr. 16 meeting at Tennessee State starting at noon.
Live scoring will be available Friday's clash at MTSU and Saturday's tilt at Belmont. Click here to view Friday vs. MTSU. Click here to view Saturday vs. BU. Saturday's get-together with the Bruins has Horizon League postseason implications, with both TTU and BU sitting in the top two spots in the conference's South Division.
A look at Tennessee Tech
Having not hit the courts since Apr. 1, Tech's last scheduled match against Southern Indiana in Cookeville was postponed on Apr. 8 due to inclement weather. No makeup date has been announced at this time.
The Golden Eagles (4-11, 4-1) did claim their last contest behind a 5-2 win at USI on Apr. 1 in Evansville. In Tech's tangle with the Screaming Eagles, Mika Berghaus, Elias Grubert, Evzen Holis and Jaime Paquet all captured singles victories, while Holis and Paquet, along with Berghaus and Pol Masafret each won their doubles meetings as well. Berghaus jumps into the weekend having won six consecutive solo battles and is the only Golden Eagle undefeated in conference play behind a 5-0 record, all out of the top spot.
At 4-1 in league play, Tech's only loss came at the hands of Belmont with a 6-1 home defeat in Cookeville on Mar. 26. In TTU's quartet of conference triumphs, the purple and gold are outscoring their opponents by a combined 24-4 margin.
The weekend's trio of matches mark Tech's last road contests of the regular season.
A look at No. 28 Middle Tennessee
Tech's tussle with the Blue Raiders (16-7, 1-0 Conference USA) will be the TTU's fifth clash with a nationally ranked foe this season. The Golden Eagles have already played No. 6 Tennessee twice as well as No. 14 Wake Forest and No. 20 Mississippi State.
MTSU has defended its home court well to the tune of an 11-1 record in Murfreesboro. The club's lone loss at home was a 4-3 defeat to Oklahoma State on Feb. 17.
Ondrej Horak leads the squad with a 15-4 singles account, doing a brunt of the damage in the No. 4 position where the Opava, Czech Reublic product has produced a 13-4 record from that spot. Stijn Slump has appeared most frequently in the top slot in the Blue Raider lineup and has gone 13-6 in that position, while Pavel Motl is tied with Slump for the second most solo wins behind 13 victories, going 3-1 in the No. 5 spot and 10-4 in No. 6 get-togethers.
A look at Belmont
The Bruins (16-5, 7-0 HL) host Tech on a nine-match winning streak that has not seen the club drop a contest since a 6-1 loss at No. 18 Mississippi State on Mar. 11. Belmont has outscored its opponents 40-3 during the club's undefeated, 7-0 Horizon League record and currently leads the conference's South Division. Cleveland State is sitting at a perfect 5-0 atop the North Division.
Tomas Luis possesses the best overall singles record this spring thanks to a 15-4 ledger, which includes a 4-0 mark out of the No. 2 position and a 7-1 account out of the No. 3 spot. Alfred Wallin is the only Burin with a 7-0 league record, and overall, the Malmo, Sweden native has gone 12-4 during singles play, which includes a 12-3 posting in the No. 2 slot. Marko Illic has been Belmont's No. 1 singles player all year and enters the weekend with a 9-8 record in that position.
A look at Tennessee State
Since dropping a 6-1 decision at Tech Tennis Courts on Mar. 25, the Tigers (9-12, 5-2 HL) have rattled off five consecutive victories, outscoring their opponents 34-1 in the process. The squad's only other conference loss was a 7-0 at Belmont on Mar. 23.
Before hosting Tech on Sunday, TSU will welcome Southern Indiana to town on Saturday. Tennessee State collected a 7-0 triumph in Evansville in the first meeting with USI back on Mar. 26. The Tigers are coming off a weekend of back-to-back 7-0 road wins over Eastern Illinois on Apr. 7 and Lindenwood on Apr. 8. Jonasz Dziopak, Daniel Caraballo, Nil Moinet, Taj Hibbert and Diego Britt-Alvarez all went 2-0 during singles play in those pair of nods.
Inside the series
Tech's tilt at MTSU will mark the 75th meeting in the all-time series. The Blue Raiders hold a 49-25 advantage and have secured seven straight victories over TTU in the set, which includes a 7-0 win in Murfreesboro in the last get-together on Mar. 13, 2022.
The Golden Eagles and Bruins will lock up on the courts for the 33rd time, with the purple and gold holding a 19-13 edge in the series. The Bruins bested Tech 6-1 on Mar. 26 in Cookeville in the first meeting this spring, with Mika Berghaus picking up TTU's lone point of the contest thanks to a straight-set victory over Marko Illic in the No. 1 singles matchup. The two teams met in last year's OVC Tournament championship match, which the Golden Eagles took with a 4-1 triumph.
Tech has never lost to Tennessee State in the all-time series, with the purple and gold possessing a 36-0 record against the Tigers. The Golden Eagles soared to a 6-1 nod in Cookeville on Mar. 25 in the first get-together between the two squads this season. Mika Berghaus, Elias Grubert, Evzen Holis, Paulo Ramos Martin and Jaime Paquet all notched singles victories in the win.
Photo by Jim Dillon
