By Rickey Fuquay, Jr.//Contributing Writer
MURFREESBORO – Middle Tennessee closed out the home portion of its 2015 schedule with a crushing 7-0 sweep over Austin Peay Tuesday afternoon at Buck Boldin Tennis Complex on Senior Day.
Seniors Yannick Born, Ben Davis, Victor Hoang and Ettore Zito were honored before the start of the match.
Austin Peay (12-5) came into the match riding an eight-match win streak, but MTSU turned the Governors back in impressive fashion.MTSU (13-10) secured the doubles point with wins at the No. 1 and No. 2 spots. The senior duo of Davis and Hoang picked up an 8-4 win at No. 1 over James Mitchell and Dimitar Ristovski.
At No. 2, Born and Miguel Fernandez matched the decision at No. 1, earning an 8-4 victory over Aaron Jumonville and Evan Borowski to give MTSU a 1-0 lead.The Blue Raiders dominated singles play as they won all six matches, five of those being straight set wins.
Robin Riethmueller rolled to a crushing 6-0, 6-1 straight set win over Borowski at the No. 6 position.
Hoang produced the same result at No. 5, winning 6-0, 6-1 over Mitchell.Gian Issa hammered the Governors’ Oleg Drobysh 6-2, 6-1 to give the Blue Raiders the match-clinching fourth point at the No. 4 position.
Born came through with a 6-3, 6-4 win at No. 3 over Manuel Montenegro,Zito closed out his home career with a manhandling 6-2, 6-2 win over Jumonville at No. 2. Davis’ final match at MTSU was the most thrilling of the day.It was a three-set thriller at No. 1 with Ristovski. Davis took the first set 6-2, but Ristovski answered with a 6-4 win in the second set. Davis finished off the sweep for MTSU in the third set though, earning a 1-0 (10-4) win in the third set that gave the Blue Raiders a 7-0 match victory.MTSU’s four seniors closed out their home careers strong. All four won their singles matches, and the pair of Davis and Hoang won their doubles match.
It was the Blue Raiders’ first 7-0 win since they swept Tennessee State on Feb. 22.
The Blue Raiders will close out the regular season with a two-match road trip to Florida this weekend. Their first match will be at Central Florida in Orlando.The match is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. CST Friday.
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