By Dylan Vazzano, TTU Sports Information
ANN ARBOR, Mich. – The Tennessee Tech tennis team's run at a tournament title ended Sunday afternoon, as the Golden Eagles were downed 4-1 by South Division top seed Belmont in the finals of the Horizon League Men's Tennis Championship.
Playing in its seventh consecutive conference title contest after making it to the previous six OVC Tournament championship matches, Tech (9-14) jumped out to a quick beginning over the Bruins by claiming the doubles point for the first time in three meetings against Belmont this spring. TTU's top tandem of Elias Grubert and Mika Berghaus registered a 7-5 victory over Marko Illic and Riccardo Trione, while Evzen Holis and Pol Masafret collected a 6-4 win against Alfred Wallin and Jack Randall in the No. 2 position to help put the purple and gold ahead 1-0.
The No. 3 get-together of Paulo Ramos Martin and Jaime Paquet against Tomas Luis and Ian Cruz did not finish with the clash squared at 6-6.
The Bruins (21-5), who were the only team to go undefeated in Horizon League play behind a 10-0 mark, turned it on during singles play by winning all four completed matchups to earn the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament as well as the club's 14th straight win overall.
Belmont, who was squaring off with Tech in the championship match of a conference tournament for the fifth straight year (excluding 2020), controlled the bottom of the singles lineup with straight-set wins in the No. 4, No. 5 and No. 6 get-togethers. Ian Cruz took down Paulo Ramos Martin 6-0, 7-5 in the No. 4 dual, while Riccardo Trione carded a 6-4, 6-2 nod against Pol Masafret in the No. 5 meeting and Jack Randall picked up a 6-4 6-3 triumph over Jaime Paquet in the No. 6 affair.
With the Bruins leading 3-1, the scene shifted to the top three solo battles, all of which were in the middle of a closely contested third and final set. After splitting the first two sets in the No. 1 solo clash, Mika Berhgaus led 3-2 in the final set against Marko Illic, and a similar situation faced Elias Grubert, who had a 2-1 advantage in the third set against Alrfed Wallin in the No. 2 tangle.
With Tech leading in each of the top two singles positions, Evzen Holis was in the midst of his own competitive clash in the third set of his No. 3 matchup against Tomas Luis that saw the final set knotted up at 3-3. As the match hung in the balance, Luis picked up steam and rattled off three straight games to take the tilt 6-3 and ultimately push the Bruins to the championship.
The No. 1 and No. 2 tilts did not finish.
The Golden Eagles tie a ribbon a spring campaign that saw Tech make the championship match of a conference tournament for a seventh-straight year (excluding 2020) as well as pick up at least one postseason win for an eighth-consecutive season.
Photo by Thomas Corhern
