By Dylan Vazzano, TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – Following a dominant postseason run that featured Ohio Valley Conference Tournament titles in five of the last six tournaments played, the Tennessee Tech tennis team will embark on a new playoff era with its first ever appearance in the Horizon League Men's Tennis Championship over the weekend.
As the league's South Division No. 2 seed, the Golden Eagles will square off with conference's North Division No. 3 seed Northern Kentucky in a quarterfinal clash on Friday, Apr. 28 from the Varsity Tennis Center in Ann Arbor, Mich. at 2 p.m. CT. The victor of the Tech-NKU affair will greet North Division top seed Cleveland State in the semifinals on Saturday, Apr. 29, also starting at 2 p.m. The championship match is scheduled for Sunday, Apr. 30 at 2 p.m.
The other side of the bracket features a quarterfinal contest of the South Division No. 3 seed Tennessee State against the North Division No. 2 seed Youngstown State with the winner to play the South Division top seed Belmont in Friday's semifinal. The entire tournament is single elimination format and the winner will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Live stats are will be available for every match of the tournament. Click here to view.
A look at No. 2 Tennessee Tech
The Golden Eagles (7-13, 7-2 HL) will make their way to Ann Arbor having closed out the regular season on a on a three-match winning streak that saw the purple and gold outscore its opponents 19-2 during the trio of tilts. Tech most recently wrapped up a regular-season ending homestand that featured back-to-back 7-0 wins over Eastern Illinois and Lindenwood. TTU's only two conference losses came at the hands of Belmont with defeats in Cookeville on Mar. 26 and in Nashville on Apr. 15.
Mika Berghaus, who spent the entire spring as Tech's No. 1 singles player, wrapped up the regular season with an eye-popping 8-1 solo record during league play. Overall, the Cologne, Germany native's 10 victories topped the purple and gold. Elias Grubert and Jaime Paquet each rounded out the conference slate with 7-2 singles marks, with Grubert playing out of the No. 2 position and Paquet out of the No. 6 slot. Evzen Holis went 6-3 during Horizon League singles play, all out of the No. 3 spot.
As far as doubles play is concerned, Berghaus once against led the purple and gold with a 7-2 tandem ledger during league action, while Pol Masafret produced a 6-2 doubles account during conference play in his first season as a Golden Eagle.
Tech tennis will look to continue a recent dominant stretch that has seen the program receive a bid to the NCAA Tournament in five of the last six full seasons. Overall, the Golden Eagles have claimed 11 OVC Tournament championships.
A look at No. 3 Northern Kentucky
The Norse (12-10, 4-4 HL) tied a ribbon on the regular season with a 4-3 victory at Chicago State on Sunday, snapping a two-match slide that featured back-to-back narrow losses to the top two teams in the Horizon League North Division with 4-3 defeats to Cleveland State on Apr. 15 and Youngstown State on Apr. 16.
NKU took down Chicago State thanks in large part to singles triumphs from Bartosz Losiak in the No. 3 position, Josef Zapletal in the No. 5 spot and Emilio Bravo in the No. 6 slot. The Norse also captured the doubles points behind tandem wins from Santiago Casamayor and Brandon Ponomarew in the No. 2 battle and Nick Nienhaus and Tom Berry in the No. 3 meeting.
Bravo has the most solo victories this year with 11, doing a brunt of the damage toward the back of the lineup where the Jalisco, Mexico product has gone 3-3 in the No. 5 position and 8-4 in the No. 6 slot. Nienhaus has performed well in the top spot in NKU's lineup with a 7-3 mark as the No. 1 singles competitor. Casamayor and Ponomarew have teamed up to go a club-best 6-1 during doubles play this spring.
A look at No. 1 Cleveland State
Should Tech prevail in Friday's quarterfinal, the Golden Eagles will lock up with the Vikings (19-7, 7-1 HL) in Saturday's semifinal. Cleveland State ended the regular season with its only conference loss after falling 5-2 at Youngstown State on Apr. 22 in the regular-year finale to snap an overall eight-match winning streak. After a 1-3 start to the spring, the Vikings have rolled out an impressive 18-4 record in their last 22 matches.
Maxime Mareschal-Hay has flourished this season to the tune of a 19-4 singles record, which includes a 17-1 account in the No. 1 solo spot. Raul Teichmann enters the postseason tournament with an 18-5 record that includes him going 4-0 in the No. 2 spot, 7-3 in the No. 3 position and 7-2 in the No. 4 slot.
Kade Mindry and Raul Teichmann have teamed up for a Cleveland State leading 13-8 doubles tandem, all out of the No. 1 duo position.
Inside the series
Tech has never squared off with either Northern Kentucky or Cleveland State.
Photo by Jim Dillon
