The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's tennis team has one match on tap for the upcoming weekend. The Mocs host regional rival Tennessee Tech on Saturday, March 2, at the UTC Tennis Center. First serve is set for 12:00 p.m. (E.S.T.) and a link for live scoring is available on the men's tennis schedule page on GoMocs.com.
"Tennessee Tech has been a dominate team in the OVC these past four seasons, winning regular and post season championships and participating in the NCAA Championships," stated UTC head coach
Chuck Merzbacher. "They play a very aggressive schedule before the conference season begins and they are talented at every position. It will take everything we have in this match."
Chattanooga is riding a five match winning-streak, its longest run since winning six in a row in 2012. UTC also brings an 8-4 record. The last time the Mocs won nine in a season was 2013 when they went 12-9.
Senior
Pablo Llebeili is on a nine-match winning streak in singles play. He is 5-0 at No. 6 and 9-3 in the spring. Junior Niklas is 9-3 at No. 1 and on a five-match run of his own. Freshman
Tomas Rodriguez is 8-4 at No. 2 and has also won five in a row.
Gerdes and Rodriguez are 8-1 at No. 2 doubles, while junior
Simon Bustamante and freshman
Kerim Hyatt have a 6-4 mark at No. 1.
The Golden Eagles are the four-time defending Ohio Valley Conference champions and are coming off three-straight trips to the NCAA Tournament. They are currently 3-8 against a very tough schedule and look to snap a two-match slide at Lipscomb on Friday. That will be their first match in the State of Tennessee this spring.
TTU has wins over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (4-2), Stetson (4-3) and Illinois State (4-0). Two of the eight losses were against No. 1 Wake Forest.
Chattanooga holds a 34-23 advantage in the all-time series that dates back to the 1956 season. The Mocs are 4-3 in the series since 2012, but TTU has won three of the last four.
They took last year's meeting 5-2 on April 1 in Cookeville.
With the men's basketball season finale against Furman scheduled for 2:00 p.m. in McKenzie Arena, parking for the tennis match is $5 in the 5th Street Garage on campus.
