Chattanooga Comes From Behind To Beat Murray State Men's Tennis

Saturday, February 17

Aurora, Ky.

5 p.m.

Murray State

UT-Chattanooga

Chattanooga Comes From Behind To Beat Murray State Men's Tennis

2/17/2007 6:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis

Murray State's men's tennis team took a 3-2 lead when Hunter Gerlach earned a three-set win at No. 3 singles, but Tennessee-Chattanooga stormed back to win the final three singles matches to pull out a 4-3 win at the KenLake State Resort Park Indoor Tennis Center in Aurora, Ky. UTC's Pavel Vostrikov beat Chris Horton 7-4 in a third set tiebreaker to clinch the victory for the Mocs (7-2).

Murray State (0-4) took an early lead in doubles play when seniors Fadi Zamjaoui and Dmytro Hryhorash defeated Mark Fynn and Timothy Mittiga, 8-6, at No. 1 doubles. Chattanooga's Badr Bouabdellah and Michael Hangstefer downed Gerlach and Horton, 8-4, at No. 3 to tie doubles play at 1-1.

Razvan Axente and Peter Sauska secured the doubles point for UTC with an 8-6 victory over MSU's Jeff Lester and Yuri Pompeu at No. 2 doubles.

Hryhorash tied the match at 1-1 when he earned the first singles point by beating Fynn in straight sets at No. 2, 6-2 and 6-3. The Mocs went back in front 2-1 after Sauska beat Lester, 6-3 and 6-2, at No. 4 singles.

Zamjaoui tied the match again for the Racers with a straight-set victory at No. 1 singles over Bouabdellah, 7-5 and 6-3.

The final three singles matches all went three sets. Gerlach won the first set over Axente at No. 3 singles by a 7-6 (7-5) score. Axente came back to take the second set, 6-1, before Gerlach finished it off with a 6-3 win in the third set to give the Racers a 3-2 edge.

Murray State needed just one win in the final two singles matches to earn its first victory of the 2007 season.

Pompeu claimed the first set over Mittiga at No. 5 singles, 6-3, to bring the home team within one set of claiming the match. Mittiga however would come back to win the second and third sets by 6-4 scores to tie things up at 3-3.

That left all eyes focused on UTC's Vostrikov and MSU's Horton at No. 6 singles. Vostrikov took the first set 6-1 but Horton wouldn't go away. The junior won a tiebreaker in the second set, 7-5, to force a third and deciding set. Again, it took a tiebreaker to settle things.

Vostrikov went ahead 6-4 in the third set tiebreaker. At match-point, Vostrikov sent a shot deep in the corner, Horton was able to get his racket on it, but the ball went straight up in the air and landed short of the net giving Chattanooga a 4-3 victory.

The Racers will return to action Sunday morning when they host an exhibition match against Vincennes Junior College at KenLake State Resort Park beginning at 9 a.m.

Tennis Match Results

Tennessee-Chattanooga vs Murray State University

Feb 17, 2007 at Aurora, Ky.

Tennessee-Chattanooga 4, Murray State University 3

Singles competition

1. Fadi Zamjaoui (MUR) def. Badr Bouabdellah (UTC) 7-5, 6-3

2. Dmytro Hryhorash (MUR) def. Mark Fynn (UTC) 6-2, 6-3

3. Hunter Gerlach (MUR) def. Razvan Axente (UTC) 7-6 (7-5), 1-6, 6-3

4. Peter Sauska (UTC) def. Jeff Lester (MUR) 6-3, 6-2

5. Timothy Mittiga (UTC) def. Yuri Pompeu (MUR) 3-6, 6-4, 6-4

6. Pavel Vostrikov (UTC) def. Chris Horton (MUR) 6-1, 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-4)

Doubles competition