This weekend the men’s tennis team defeated Presbyterian and Georgia Southern, avenging two losses from 2011.
It was a weekend of relief and redemption for Owls head coach T.J. Greggs, as the Owls started the weekend with three straight losses in doubles to the Presbyterian.
“I’ll be honest, I was worried after the doubles,” said Greggs. “We just couldn’t catch a break out there in doubles. We started slow, rebounded well, but just didn’t quite get over the hump.”
Further relief came for coach Greggs when Juniors Gianni Kubin and Gokalp Ozdemir pulled out hard-fought wins in their singles matches.
The two Turkish players had not performed at the level expected by their coach, despite their tremendous talents. Kubin showed true grit winning on two tie-breaks after losing a first set in his No.4 singles match against Eagle Andrew Dromsky, winning 4-6, 7-6(4), 1-0(4).
“I was extremely proud of Gianni and Gokalp,” said Greggs.
“They both picked up wins against very solid opponents
and are finally performing at the level I knew they could. This was our best team performance of the season. If we can perform like this during the conference season we are going to surprise some teams.”
With an always solid performer in senior Simon Janik and several talented freshmen, Kubin and Ozdemir could be the missing link in coach Greggs’ quest for success in the Atlantic Sun conference.
The 5-3 Owls who have won four of their last five matches will pick up where they left off on the road in Chattanooga, February 25th.
