Box Score

JACKSONVILLE – The Jacksonville State men's tennis team closed out its six-match homestand with a thrilling 4-3 win over Tennessee Tech in Ohio Valley Conference tennis action on Wednesday at the JSU Tennis Courts.

The win snapped a four match-losing skid to the Golden Eagles and the first win since 2009 for the Gamecocks.  Jax State improved to 7-6 overall and 2-1 in OVC play.  Tech fell to 2-9 on the season and 1-1 in league play.

The match-clinching point came down to court No. 3 as freshman Dylan Gee won in straight sets over TTU's Vasily Eremeev, but it wasn't easy for the London, England-native.  Gee battled in the opening set before coming away with a 7-6 win to take the advantage in the match.  In the second set, Gee was in control the whole time to go on for the 6-2 win and clinch the match for the Gamecocks.

JSU had to battle back in singles after a disappointing doubles portion of the match.  TTU claimed both matches at No. 1 and No. 2 to gain the point.  TTU's top tandem of Oleksiy Arovin and Alberto Esteban downed JSU's pairing of Jaryd Reese and Jefferson Wendler-Filho, 8-4.  Felipe Diaz and Pedro Wagner fell to Tech's Eremeev and Artem Tarasov, 8-3 to close out doubles.

The Gamecocks quickly regrouped for singles and got off to a great start as Mathias Chaim quick-worked Gagan Jain at No. 5 – 6-1, 6-0.  The Red and White took the 2-1 lead after Diaz pusted Gonzalo Munoz in straight sets, 6-2, 6-2.  Wendler-Filho turned back Alvaro Cintas at No. 4 in a hard fought match.  Wendler-Filho won the opening set 6-4, but Cintas took him to a tiebreaker in the second set before Wendler-Filho out-lasted his opposition in the tiebreaker.

Tech's Esteban claimed a 6-3, 7-6 win against JSU's Jaryd Reese at No. 3 for its third point of the match.

JSU hits the road for its next four matches beginning on Saturday, March 22 at SIU Edwardsville.  The Gamecocks will visit Eastern Illinois on Sunday, March 23 before trekking to Charleston, S.C. during the spring break holiday to take on The Citadel (March 27) and Coastal Carolina (March 28).