Men's Tennis Falls to Tennessee in SEC Tournament
4/21/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
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Athens, Ga. -- The University of Alabama men’s tennis team lost a hard-fought 4-2 match Thursday to Tennessee in the first round of the SEC Tennis Tournament.
UT’s Kiril Tcherveniachki clinched the match with a 7-6, 7-6 win over Alabama’s Billy Mertz. Tcherveniachki’s win avenged an earlier loss to Mertz on March 6 in UT’s 6-1 win over Alabama (10-15, 1-11 SEC).
“I’m proud of our team and the effort they gave today,” head coach Billy Pate said. “We fought exceptionally well. We gave ourselves a lot of opportunities but just weren’t able to convert.”
Alabama faced four tiebreakers in the match but was only to convert on one. The Tide’s Joseph Jung (23-12) defeated No. 58 Mark Dietrich at No. 1 singles 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 to bring the score to 3-2. It was Jung’s ninth consecutive win.
However, moments after Jung brought the Tide to within one point, Tcherveniachki clinched the match for UT with his second tiebreak victory of the day.
In addition to Jung’s win, Luigi D’Agord (27-18) continued his roll, winning for the fifth straight match. D’Agord defeated Bobby Cameron 6-3, 7-5 at No. 2 singles. Jung and D’Agord will now wait to see if they are awarded berths into the NCAA individual championships in May.
“I’m proud of Joe and Luigi for finishing so strong and on such a good note,” Pate said. “It’s a great building block for the feature.”
Tennessee took a 1-0 lead after doubles, however D’Agord and Eric Molnar claimed a huge win by defeating the 11th-ranked team in the country, Ben Rogers and Ockie Oosthuizen, 9-8.
Singles
No. 73 Joseph Jung (UA) def. No. 58 Mark Dietrich (UT), 2-6, 6-3, 7-6
No. 62 Luigi D’Agord (UA) def. Bobby Cameron (UT), 6-3, 7-5
Ockie Oosthuizen (UT) def. Eric Molnar (UA), 6-4, 7-6
Javier Bes (UA) vs. Morgan Wilson (UT), 6-4, 5-7, unfinished
Kiril Tcherveniachki (UT) def. Billy Mertz (UA), 7-6, 7-6
Kaden Hensel (UT) def. Sammy Struyf (UA), 6-4, 6-2
Doubles
Luigi D'Agord/Eric Molnar def No. 11 Ben Rogers/Ockie Oosthuizen (UT), 9-8
Mark Dietrich/Morgan Wilson (UT) def. Javier Bes/Sammy Struyf (UA), 8-4
Bobby Cameron/Kaden Hensel (UT) def. Andrew Felsenthal/Joseph Jung (UA), 8-6
