Melian Puigventos Named SoCon Men's Tennis Player in March
4/8/2011 12:43:00 AM | Men's Tennis
SPARTANBURG, S.C - Juan Melian Puigventos (Las Palmas De Las Canaria, Spain) has been named Southern Conference Men's Tennis Player of the Month for March as announced today (April 7th) by the league office. The sophomore closed out the month of March undefeated in singles play, posting a 7-0 record at the No. 1 seed. He leads the SoCon with 17 wins.
"It's great to see Juan's work recognized," said Head Coach Nick Zieziula."He has put together an outstanding record this spring and that is directly from the hard work and dedication that he has put in to every practice."
Melian Puigventos won six of the seven matches in straight sets. He only dropped one set in the month of March, rebounding to defeat The Citadel's David Orces, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. He also earned two doubles victories in conference play at the top of the lineup with Matthijs Verdam (Hilversum, The Netherlands). Melian Puigventos' winning ways carried over into April where he has continued his 11-match winning streak in singles play.
He helped guide the Eagles to a 4-3 victory over Furman (March 8th) to open SoCon play. With the Eagles down 3-0, he defeated Sawyer Duncan 7-5, 7-6 to cut the lead 3-2. GSU won on the final two courts to win the match. Two matches later, Melian Puigventos clinched a victory over Southern Illinois Carbondale (March 14) by defeating Adam Fabik 6-2, 6-3.
Juan is one of three Georgia Southern student-athletes to receive the Player of the Month award for March, the most of any institution in the Southern Conference. Melian Puigventos joins Eric Phillips (Carrolton, Ga.) of baseball and Marie Fogle (Rincon, Ga.) of softball with his honor.
The Georgia Southern Men's Tennis team returns to action at Appalachian State and Elon this weekend. The Eagles travel to face the Mountaineers on Saturday, April 9th, for a noon match before visiting the Phoenix Sunday, April 10th, at 1 p.m.
