Saturday, March 27, 2010

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (March 27, 2010) - For the second consecutive day the No. 60 ETSU men's tennis team shutout an Atlantic Sun Conference opponent as the Bucs dropped Belmont 7-0 Saturday afternoon at the Davies Tennis Complex in Nashville.

With the win ETSU improved to 10-7 overall with a 7-1 mark in A-Sun play, while the host Bruins fell to 4-11 and 0-7.

"We played pretty solid today," said head coach Yaser Zaatini. "The boys were ready to go.  Belmont outplayed us in No. 1 doubles, but after that the guys played some of their best tennis I've seen this spring."

After ETSU took the early point by winning two out of the three doubles matches, the Bucs quickly stole all the momentum as a pair of Bruin injuries forced Belmont to withdraw at two singles positions.

With the 3-0 advantage in hand sophomores Jeremy Bonnevalle (Keerbergen, Belgium) and Robin Akser (Ornskoldsvik, Sweden)  then kept the ETSU wins coming as each Buc won with 6-1 straight set victories over Rafel Matos and Jonathan Murrell.

Freshman Juan-Carlos Ramirez (Asuncion, Paraguay) then stayed strong with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Felipe Cirne Lima at the No, 4 position, while fellow Buc Grega Teraz (Mojstrana, Slovenia) stormed back against Renato Antun 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 to close out the contest.

"Belmont is dealing with some injuries right now, but our guys still stayed focus and played with great effort," said Zaatini. "Even after Grega lost that first set I knew he'd be fine because he's such a fighter."

With two of its three matches in Music City now complete the Bucs will look for a sweep in Middle Tennessee as ETSU takes on MTSU with a noon contest Sunday in Murfreesboro.

Doubles

Antun/Matos (BU) def. Teraz/Bottoni (ETSU), 8-4

Gille/Bandres (ETSU) def. Amaral/Lima (BU) 8-3

Akser/Isaza (ETSU) def. Paoliello/Murrell (BU), 8-3

Singles

Gille (ETSU) def. Paoliello (BU), 3-0-def.

Teraz (ETSU) def. Antun (BU), 3-6, 6-4, 6-2

Isaza (ETSU) def. Amaral (BU), 3-0-def.

Ramirez (ETSU) def. Lima (BU), 6-3, 6-1

Asker (ETSU) def. Matos (BU), 6-1, 6-1

Bonnevalle (ETSU) def. Murrell (BU), 6-1, 6-1

For more information on the ETSU men's tennis team please visit www.ETSUBucs.com.