Men's Box Score

Women's Box Score

JACKSONVILLE – The Jacksonville State men's and women's teams put themselves in great position to earn a berth in the 2013 Ohio Valley Conference Tennis Championships with wins over SIU Edwardsville on Sunday at the JSU Tennis Courts.

Both squads turned in come-from-behind 5-2 wins over the visiting Cougars.  The JSU men improved to 9-11 overall and 5-2 in the OVC.  With just one home match left on the docket, Steve Bailey's men's team improved to 5-0 at home this season, including a 4-0 conference mark at home.  Bailey's women's team pushed its season's overall mark to 11-10 and 6-2 in league play.  The Jax State women were also perfect at home in league matches at 5-0.

In the men's match, the Cougars won two of the three courts to take the early advantage.  JSU's No. 2 tandem of senior Igor Santos and sophomore Felipe Wenzel quick-worked SIUE's team of Jacob Perkins and Stephen Washuta, 8-1.  The Santos and Wenzel duo moved to 5-1 against OVC competition and 11-4 overall.

Sunday's match mirrored the Gamecocks' match with Eastern Illinois on Saturday by dropping the doubles point, but bouncing back to win in singles play.  JSU won five of the six singles matches with the lone setback coming at No. 2.  Santos improved to 6-1 on the season by winning in straight sets over SIUE's Marten Jonsson – 6-4, 6-3.  Senior Nenad Marcec disposed of Perkins at No. 3 with a 6-3, 6-2 win.  Senior Felipe Watanabe clinched the match for Jax State with a 6-2, 7-5 win at No. 6 over SIUE's Patrick Gaffigan.  Sophomore Felipe Diaz and Wenzel wrapped up the scoring with wins at No. 4 and 5.  Wenzel split the first two sets with Jacob Tanulanond and closed out with a 10-6 win in the third set.

The Jax State women had to regroup after falling behind after doubles.  JSU's pairing of Raisa Guasti and Raphaela Lima turned back SIUE's Kali Donner and Sierra Halverson, 8-2.  SIUE posted the doubles point after its No. 2 tandem of held off a charge by JSU's duo of Olivia Nguyen and Aleksandra Cmilijic.  The JSU team fought back from 7-4 down to force a tie breaker and eventually fell, 9-8.

In singles, Nguyen bounced back to quickly even the match at 1-all with a 6-4, 6-2 win at No. 3 over Halverson.  Sophomore Danielle Kerindi added to JSU's point total with a quick 6-0, 6-0 victory over Amanda Miller.  With the match tied at 2-all, Lima tallied a three set win over Donner at No. 2.  Lima dropped the first set 7-5, but rebounded to take the match with a 6-4, 6-4 win.
Jax State clinched the match with a thriller at No. 1 between Guasti and Monique Krutak.  Krutek downed Guasti 6-1 in the first set, but fell to Guasti 7-5, 7-5 in straight sets.  The loss was Krutek's fist in league and was 12-1 coming in to the match.

Sophomore Zoe Bizinos wrapped up the match with a three-set win.  After falling in a 7-6 tie breaker, she claimed a second-set tie breaker with Haley Ilcewicz.  The pair played a super tie breaker in the third set with Bizinos claiming an 11-9 win.

JSU will close out the home schedule on Tuesday, April 9 with a non-conference match with Mercer.  Match time is set for 1:30 at the JSU Tennis Courts.  JSU will honor its seniors prior to the match at 1 p.m.  Following the non-conference affair on Tuesday, the Gamecocks return to OVC action as they travel to Murray State and Austin Peay next weekend.