Eagles Open SoCon Championships with Chattanooga

STATESBORO, Ga. - The Georgia Southern Men's Tennis team (10-12, 3-7 SoCon) faces Chattanooga (7-15, 2-8 SoCon) in the opening round of the Southern Conference Championships after a 4-3 win over the Mocs to end the regular season. The Eagles take on Chattanooga Wednesday, April 20th, at 2 p.m. at the Champions Club in Chattanooga, Tenn. The winner of the match faces No. 1 seed Elon Thursday, April 21st, at 1 p.m.    

"The key to our success through the tournament is going to be adjusting to the court surface and managing the increased intensity of the tournament -- there is a little extra edge when teams know they are in a single elimination tournament," said Head Coach Nick Zieziula.

This will be the 27th meeting between both schools, with Georgia Southern winning the last three matches. The three-straight victories move the Eagles to 13-14 all-time against Chattanooga.

Both programs have met five previous times at the SoCon Championships since 1998, when the tournament changed from an individual to a team format. Georgia Southern is 1-4 against the Mocs, winning the last match, 4-2, in the first round of the 2004 championship.

"We need to be prepared for another dogfight Wednesday, Chattanooga showed us Sunday that they aren't going to back down," said Zieziula. "We need to play another complete match from the doubles all the way through every singles match to take another victory."

In their match Sunday, the Eagles used the doubles point and three singles victories to pull ahead of Chattanooga. Georgia Southern won two of three matches in doubles action. At No. 3, Derrick Davison (Peachtree City, Ga.) and Alain Garrido (Vigo, Spain) breezed through their set, winning 8-2. The number-one doubles team of Matthijs Verdam (Hilversum, The Netherlands) and Juan Melian Puigventos (Las Palmas De Las Canaria, Spain) won on the final point of the match, 9-8, thanks to a 7-3 tiebreak

Verdam, Melian Puigventos and Mark Paetz (Munich, Germany) provided victories at No. 1, No. 2 and No. 5 singles. Melian Puigventos and Paetz both won in three sets, while Verdam won his match in straight sets.

Georgia Southern is led by Melian Puigventos, the 2011 SoCon Player of the Year, who finished 10-0 in conference play at No. 1 singles. The sophomore closed the regular season on a 15-match winning streak and posted a 21-1 overall record at the top of the lineup, currently Georgia Southern's all-time best winning-percentage in season singles play.

Verdam follows Melian Puigventos with a 15-6 record in singles action. Verdam split the season at the No. 2 and No. 3 spots, going 8-3 on court two and 7-3 on court three. The sophomore carries a three-match winning streak into Wednesday's match.

Chattanooga finished the regular season on an eight-match losing streak. Jackson Tresnan leads the Mocs with a combined 12-9 dual record at No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 singles. Roberto Vieira owns a 9-8 dual record, with all but one win coming at the No. 1 singles slot.  

For more information on Georgia Southern Men's Tennis, follow the Eagles at GeorgiaSouthernEagles.com/mtennis or receive short updates at twitter.com/GSAthletics or facebook.com/GSAthletics.

Category: Men's Tennis

Published on Tuesday, 19 April 2011 22:51