VALDOSTA, GA – The Valdosta State men’s tennis team completed a clean sweep of the North Alabama Lions with a 9-0 match win in Gulf South Conference action on Tuesday afternoon at the VSU Tennis Courts.
After losing the first two matches of the season, the Blazers have now reeled off eight straight wins as the nation’s No. 14 team and improved their record to 8-2 overall, 2-0 against league opponents. The loss for UNA dropped the team to 6-7 overall on the season, 3-3 in GSC play.
Doubles action made for an exciting start to the afternoon action, as Francisco Yim Kim and Mario Navarro Bayo saved match point three different times to hold on and take a 9-7 victory over Guillaume Dechoz and Benjamin Poire at No. 1.
Just one court away, Tammo Haake and Sebastian Jasyk teamed up for the most exciting come-from-behind win of the current season. Facing a 7-2 deficit at No. 2, the team joined forces to slow the Lions’ team of Rob Whitsitt and Aliaksei Kavalenka and tie the pro set back up at 7-7. The duo proceeded to cap off the comeback with a 9-8 (5) win that gave the Blazers a 2-0 match advantage.
In the third and final doubles match, Joachim Schemm and Gereon Heitmann handled Ales Weber and Max Druppel with relative ease. Their 8-4 win completed the strong start at doubles for Valdosta State and sent the team into singles action with the 3-0 lead.
Yim Kim, one of the top ten singles players in the region, continued the dominant outing with a 7-5 win over Dechoz at No. 1, before the UNA player was forced to retire due to an ankle injury. Meanwhile, Navarro Bayo, represented his spot as the No. 17 player in the South region well, as he overcame a slow start and picked up steam late in the match to claim a 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 win at No. 2 over Poire.
Schemm defeated Druppel 6-4, 6-1 at No. 3, and Heitmann locked up his seventh singles victory of the year at No. 4 with a 6-4, 7-5 win over Kavalenka.
Jasyk cruised past Ali Murad at No. 5 to pick up a 6-1, 6-1 victory, which accounted for his ninth singles win of the year, and Haake took his first singles win of the 2014 campaign to close out the afternoon action with a 7-5, 6-1 win over Jonathan Vick.
A big challenge lies ahead for the Blazers, as they must next travel to Pensacola, Fla. to face the Argonauts of West Florida. It’s a battle of two national contenders, with UWF currently standing as the nation’s No. 3 team. The match is scheduled for a 2:00 p.m. start.
Source: Valdosta State University Athletics
