NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Jacksonville State men's tennis team put forth a valiant effort in the semifinals of the 2012 Ohio Valley Conference Men's Tennis Championships, but fell short, 4-3, to top-seeded Tennessee Tech on Saturday at the Centennial Park Tennis Complex.

The Gamecocks wrap up the 2012 campaign at 12-13 on the season and posted a 5-3 mark in conference play.  JSU has reached the semifinal round of the postseason event the last two seasons.

Jax State got off to a great start in doubles play as they won the point after the No. 1 and 2 doubles teams cruised past the Golden Eagles.  At No. 1, the JSU pairing of Axel Sundberg and Nenad Marcec throttled Tech's duo of Syrym Abdukhalikov and Alex Chen, 8-2.  The Red and White clinched the first point of the match after Igor Santos and Jordan Cowling topped TTU's team of Arten Tarasov and Vasely Eremeev, 8-4.

Tech rebounded in singles play by taking the first set in four of the six matches, which keyed the come-from-behind win.  JSU won the opening set at No. 2 and 3 as Santos and Cowling claimed the opening set.  Santos and Cowling went on to post straight set wins.  Santos downed Chen, 6-2, 6-0 to give Jax State a 2-1 lead.  Cowling pushed the Gamecocks' score to three wins after a 6-4, 6-0 win over Tarasov.

Tech's Justin Kirstein claimed a win over JSU's Felipe Watanabe for its second point, while Abdukhalikov turned back a solid effort by Sundberg to win 6-3, 7-6.  TTU evened the match when Marcec pushed OVC Freshman of the Year, Alejandro Augusto, to a third set at No. 3.  Marcec dropped the first set, 6-0, but battled back to claim a 7-6 second set.  Augusto won the third and deciding set, 6-1. 

With the match knotted at 3-all, it came down to No. 6 in a third set affair.  After splitting the first two sets, JSU freshman Felipe Wenzel fell to Eremeev, 6-1.  With the win, Tech advances to Sunday's Championship match against Eastern Kentucky, who knocked off Austin Peay in the other semifinal match.