Austin Peay Governors Tennis blows by Belmont in home opener

APSU Sports: Austin Peay Men’s Tennis

Clarksville, TN – Austin Peay State University men’s tennis team upended Belmont, 5-2, Wednesday afternoon in its home opener at the Governors Indoor Tennis Center.

Belmont entered the match looking to continue the momentum built through a strong fall tournament season, but the Govs had other plans. It started with a sweep of the doubles point and ended with the APSU winning the top two and bottom two singles to take the match.

“We did a good job of taking the intensity we had in doubles and applying it to singles,” head coach Malik Tabet said. “This is a good win for our team. Belmont has a lot of talent and they had a great fall. This is big for confidence when you have such a young team.

 

At No. 1 doubles, junior Sean Bailey and freshman Dimitar Ristovski rolled to an 8-3 win, while sophomore Jasmin Ademovic and freshman Iago Seffrin had similar success at No. 2 doubles, winning 8-5. Junior John Storie and freshman Aleksas Tverijonas wrapped the sweep with a 9-7 win at No. 3.

The singles competition opened with a split. Ademovic won the first set at No. 1 singles, and Belmont’s Rodrigo Amaral retired with an injury before the start of the second. Bailey picked up a straight-set win against his former teammate, Belmont transfer Henrique Norbiato.

Tverijonas powered off the momentum of a first-set tiebreaker win to shutout Fernando Mussolini in the second set for the win at No. 5. Freshman Michal Hriciste won in straight sets at No. 6.

“Sean had a big win for us today,” Tabet said. “He had a game plan and he stuck to it. Our freshmen are still making a lot of unforced errors and mistakes, but they’re going to figure out the way we want to play. We’ve got a few weeks before our next match and a lot of things to work on.”

Austin Peay returns to action February 10th, when it hosts Western Kentucky.