Men?s Tennis Take Last Road Trip of Regular Season
4/8/2011 8:01:00 PM | Men's Tennis
STATESBORO, Ga - The Georgia Southern Men's Tennis team (9-7, 2-2 SoCon) closes out its two-week road trip in North Carolina this weekend against Appalachian State (12-5, 4-2 SoCon) and Elon (14-6, 6-1 SoCon). The Eagles travel to Boone, N.C., on Saturday, April 9th, for a noon matchup against the Mountaineers before competing against The Phoenix on Sunday, April 10th, at 1 p.m.
"We've had a good week of practice preparing for our return to North Carolina," said Head Coach Nick Zieziula. We were disappointed with the results from our trip last weekend, but we learned a lot from both matches. All the conference scores have shown that there is very little separating the top from the bottom of the conference. We know that if we continue to fight hard and stay mentally sharp through the whole match then we can beat anyone."
Georgia Southern leads Appalachian State, 22-8, in the all-time series. Last year, the Eagles defeated the Mountaineers 4-3 with Justin Flynn clinching the final match 6-4, 7-5 on court six. Elon leads 6-3 in the all-time series. The Phoenix defeated GSU 5-2 last season.
Southern Conference Player of the Month Juan Melian Puigventos (Las Palmas De Las Canaria, Spain) leads the SoCon with a 17-1 record at No. 1 singles, the most wins in the SoCon. Melian Puigventos currently has an 11-match winning streak dating back to late February. Matthijs Verdam (Hilversum, The Netherlands) is 7-3 at the number-two seed.
Appalachian State is coming off a 4-3 loss to Furman that broke its five-match winning streak. The Moutaineers are led by Philip Kloc who is 12-4 at the No. 3 seed. Kloc and Alain Humblet are 14-3 at the No. 1 spot in doubles action.
Elon plays host to Wofford on Saturday before Sunday's matchup against the Eagles. In singles play, Alberto Rojas is 10-5 at the No. 5 seed, including a 7-0 mark in the SoCon. Chase Helpingstine and Philip Nemec hold a 7-0 league record at No. 1 doubles and a 15-1 overall record.
Georgia Southern closes out the regular season with a two-match homestand next weekend. The Eagles play host to College of Charleston Thursday, April 14th, at 2:30 p.m. before competing against Chattanooga in a noon matchup on Saturday, April 16th.
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.
