Saturday, April 15, 2000

Johnson City, Tenn. -- East Tennessee State University defeated the Chattanooga Mocs 5-2 in men's tennis action this afternoon at the ETSU Courts. The win by the Bucs, their fourth in a row, improved ETSU to 15-7, 7-0 in the Southern Conference. Chattanooga drops to 12-7, 5-4 in the conference.

Gustavo Gomez, who returned to action from a shoulder injury on Wednesday versus Furman, clinched the match for the Bucs with a 6-2, 7-6 victory over Jason Ontog in the #1 singles match.

After losing the doubles point to open the match, ETSU came back to win five of the six singles matches. Four of the five victories by the Bucs in singles play were in straight sets. Matt Keeter capped off the match for ETSU with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 victory at #6 singles.

"This is a big win for us today," said ETSU Head Coach Dave Mullins. "We didn't play real well in doubles except at #3. We got good production from our singles. Our players were dominant by winning four of the five singles matches in straight sets. The straight set wins allow us to recuperate quickly for tomorrow's match. We are looking forward to a big match with Georgia Southern."

ETSU will return to action on April 16 at 2:00 when the Georgia Southern Eagles visit the ETSU Courts.

Singles

#1 Gustavo Gomez (ETSU) def. Jason Ontog 6-2, 7-6

#2 Marcos Pavlovich (ETSU) def. Jesse Koti 6-3, 6-4

#3 Roberto Fernandez (ETSU) def. Jordan Goetzman 6-3, 6-2

#4 Juan Yannuzzi (ETSU) def. Fabian Bechara 6-3, 6-3

#5 Fungai Munjanja (UTC) def. Ricardo Nava (ETSU) 6-2, 6-2

#6 Matt Keeter (ETSU) def. Brandon Abney 4-6, 6-4, 6-2

Doubles

#1 Koti/Goetzman (UTC) def. Fernandez/Gomez 8-3

#2 Ontog/Bechara (UTC) def. Yannuzzi/Pavlovich 8-2

#3 Keeter/Nava (ETSU) def. Abney/Munjanja 8-1