Featured photo by Brett Walker
Story by Brett Walker
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MURFREESBORO, Tenn- Middle Tennessee men’s tennis (19-9) defeated New Mexico State (9-13) on Saturday to advance to its fifth consecutive Conference USA Championship appearance.
Saturday’s match at the MTSU Tennis Complex marked the first time that MTSU hosted the Conference USA Tournament. After a one-hour rain delay, the No. 1 seed Blue Raiders made quick work of the No. 4 seed Aggies.
As per usual, MTSU started hot in doubles. Sophomore Marcel Kamrowski and senior Javier Cueto Ramos knocked off Tobias Wallin and Itay Feigin by a score of 6-0 to kick-start MTSU’s day. MTSU head coach Jimmy Borendame complimented his team’s fast start.
“Marcel and Javier set the tone right away with a 6-0 win, just on top of it,” Borendame said. In the deuce points, we were doing really well.”
Following Kamrowski and Cueto Ramos’ win, the Blue Raiders wrapped up doubles point quickly with a 6-1 win over Shu Matsuoka and Jakub Kroslak.
Singles were much of the same for MTSU. Matsuoka carried his winning ways over to singles as he defeated Luca Fe D’Ostiani 6-0, 6-1. Matsuoka’s size, power and athleticism are something that is not typical in a No. 6 seed singles player.
Transfer senior Demis Taramonlis soon followed with an identical 6-0, 6-1 score against New Mexico State’s Patrick Lohmann. Borendame recently moved Taramonlis up to the No. 5 singles spot and is impressed with the results.
“Demis is just a human ball machine, he’s a warrior,” Borendame said. “The guy makes like four mistakes the whole day. So that’s not easy to play against.”
With the doubles point clinched and two singles wins in tow, the match was all but clinched for MTSU. It was a race between Kamrowski, Ondrej Horak and Leo Raquin to see who could be the first of the three to finish and clinch the match for the Blue Raiders. While all three were closing in on victory, Kamrowski prevailed first and sealed the semifinal win 6-1, 6-3.
As a freshman Kamrowski, was a part of the team last season when MTSU won its fourth straight title. Now a sophomore, Kamrowski is feeling good heading into Sunday’s conference championship.
“It feels great, it’s going to be five consecutive finals (appearances) for us as a team, so it feels great,” Kamrowski said.
MTSU will face the Conference USA No. 2 seed No. 53 Liberty on Sunday at 12 p.m. CT.
Brett Walker is a sportswriter for MTSU Sidelines. For more news, visit www.mtsusidelines.com, and follow us on Facebook at MTSU Sidelines and on X and Instagram at @mtsusidelines. Also, sign up for our weekly newsletter here.
