Men's Box Score
Women's Box Score

JACKSONVILLE – The Jacksonville State men's tennis team claimed its third Ohio Valley Conference regular season title with a thrilling 4-3 win over Morehead State on Saturday at the JSU Tennis Courts.

The Gamecocks' title is the first since 2007 and sends them to the 2014 OVC Tennis Championships as the top seed in the six-team event that will get started on Thursday, April 17 in Paducah, Ky.  JSU earns the top seed by virtue of its win over Belmont, who stills has two matches left in the regular season. The Gamecocks will face the winner of the No. 4 & 5 seed on Friday, April 18 in the semifinal round.

JSU jumped out to an early 3-0 lead but the match was far from settled as the Eagles remained alive in the match at three separate courts.  The Gamecocks claimed the doubles point after winning at No. 1 and 3.  The duo of Jaryd Reese and Pedro Wagner took down MSU's pairing of Ji Hoon Heo and Jack Swindells, 8-3.  At No. 3, Jefferson Wendler-Filho and Felipe Wenzel won by the same score over Giovanni Samaha and Gabriel Ruiz.

Jax State added a pair of points early in singles after freshmen Dylan Gee and Wendler-Filho posted straight sets wins at No. 3 and 4 respectively.  Gee took down Heo in a first set tiebreaker before bouncing Heo 6-0 in the second set.  Gee, from London, England, finished his first season with a 7-1 conference mark and enters the postseason riding a six-match winning streak.  Wendler-Filho was nearly perfect in OVC play as his 6-3, 7-6 win over MSU's Nick Mercer gave him an 8-1 conference mark.
Things started to get interesting from that point on in the match as MSU split the first two sets at No. 1 and 4 to set up a three set finale on those courts.  Wagner dropped the first set Swindells, 6-2, but battled back to force a third set with a 6-4 win in the second set.  Wagner eventually retired the match with the score knotted at 6-all, due to the fact that JSU had clinched the match. 

The match was clinched by Jax State after freshman Mathias Chaim handed David Clifford his first conference loss of the season to help the Gamecocks claim the title.  After Clifford downs Chaim, 7-5 in the opening set, the freshman from Brazil rebounded in the second set with a 6-4 win to force a third and deciding set.  Chaim eased past Clifford, 6-1 to win the match.

Freshman Jaryd Reese dropped a marathon match to Samaha at No. 2 after winning the first set, 6-3.  Samaha bounced back to win 6-2, 6-4.

The JSU women were also playing for its postseason fate on Saturday as it needed a win, but could advance to the OVC Tournament with a loss and help from other teams in the league.  The Gamecocks, who honored their two seniors – Raisa Guasti and Aleksandra Cmiljic prior to the match, dropped a tough 5-2 decision.  JSU finished the OVC at 5-5 on the year and still alive for the postseason.

JSU's two points came at No. 3 and 5 singles.  Claudia Marsala quick worked MSU's Dominique McLean, 6-0, 6-4 at No. 3.  It was Marsala's sixth win against OVC competition.  Junior Danielle Kerindi topped Sandrine Beaule, 6-0, 6-1. 
In a battle of two of the top players on the women's side, MSU's Briar Preston downed Guasti at No. 1, 6-2, 6-0.  Gusti finished the regular season at 8-2 in the OVC.

The league office will announce both OVC Tennis Championship draws on Sunday evening after the completion of the regular season on Sunday.