Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Men’s tennis earns second A-Sun weekly honor of 2012 season

MACON, Ga. (Feb. 29, 2012) – After posting a 2-0 record in both singles and doubles play through the Buccaneers’ first two wins of the spring season, ETSU men’s tennis senior Robin Akser (Ornskoldsvik, Sweden) was named Atlantic Sun Player of the Week, the league announced on Wednesday.

This marks Akser’s second A-Sun Player of the Week recognition of his collegiate career, having also earned the honor the week of Feb. 3, 2010. Akser also joins classmate Sander Gille (Kuringen, Belgium) on the A-Sun’s 2012 honoree list after Gille was recognized on Feb. 15.

Akser boasted a perfect record this past weekend to help ETSU to its first two wins of the season. The Swedish senior went 2-0 through singles play and 2-0 in doubles to accumulate a 4-0 combined record to the chagrin of Appalachian State and Tennessee Tech. In doing so, Akser bumped his season singles record to 7-6 overall, 3-2 dual, and moved his doubles record to 4-6 overall, 3-4 dual. He is also now on a three-match doubles winning streak, and is 3-1 in doubles since teaming with Gille back on Feb. 11 against Denver.

On Saturday against Appalachian State, Akser defeated Matt Saltsgaver 6-3, 6-1 at No. 6 singles, and teamed with Gille to defeat the Mountaineers' No. 1 doubles team of Phillip Kloc and Sebastien King 9-8. The following day against Tennessee Tech, the Bucs made it two victories in a row as Akser moved up to No. 5 singles to defeat Artem Tarasov in straight sets 6-1, 6-3. He and Gille also defeated Tech's No. 1 doubles team of Alex Chen and Syrym Abdukhalikov 8-2.

The Bucs’ men’s tennis team awaits the start of A-Sun play, which begins March 16 when the five-time defending conference champions travel to Jacksonville, Fla., to take on the Jacksonville Dolphins.

For more information of ETSU tennis, please visit ETSUBucs.com and click on the tennis links.