Two Road Matches Up Next for Men's Tennis
2/16/2011 12:24:00 AM | Men's Tennis
STATESBORO, Ga. - The Georgia Southern Men's Tennis team (3-2) travels up U.S. 301 to Orangeburg, S.C., to play South Carolina State (0-1) Wednesday, February 16th, at 2 p.m. before heading to Jacksonville for its matchup against North Florida Saturday, February 19th, at 2 p.m.
After dominating the Hampton Pirates 6-1 last Sunday at the Hanner Tennis Complex, the Eagles are ready to go back to work.
Georgia Southern picked up the doubles point in four of five matches this season. The No.1 doubles team of Juan Manuel Melian Puigventos (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain) and Matthijs Verdam (Hilversum, Netherlands) is 4-1 this season. Four wins have also been produced out of the No.2 doubles team of Alain Garrido (Vigo, Spain) and Marco Osorio (Tegucigalpa, Honduras).
"I think the main thing for us in terms of overall strategy is with our doubles continuing to be as aggressive as possible, and that's worked out pretty well for us," said Head Coach Nick Zieziula.
Zieziula noted that turning some of the Eagles' previous close losses into victories will be a great achievement for the team. The Eagles hope to even their 1-2 record on the road this week with improvements through the back of their lineup.
"A big part between the success at home and a few tough losses on the road has been the caliber of the opponents that we've played on the road," Zieziula said. "We've faced Georgia State and Stetson; both possibly are going to be teams in the top 75 this year. We grew a lot from our first match at Georgia State to our last match at Stetson and we hope to continue that growth this week.
The South Carolina State Bulldogs lost their season opener to Gardner-Webb, 3-4. The No. 2 doubles team of Dmytro Kovalevych and Anton Protensko are undefeated in both the doubles and their singles play.
The North Florida Ospreys are 3-2 with wins over Georgia State, Florida A&M and Florida Atlantic and losses to Miami and Elon. North Florida's No. 1 singles player Moritz Buerchner's only loss this season was to No. 16 regionally ranked Mark Abdelnour of Florida Atlantic.
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.
