Both the men and women’s tennis teams competed at the Byers Tennis Complex at Georgia Tech on Saturday, March 23, taking on Florida Gulf Coast University. The men’s team fell to FGCU 6-1, while the women dropped a 4-1 contest.
The matches were moved inside due to the extreme weather conditions. The Byers Tennis Complex proved to be the perfect setting for the meeting between the Atlantic Sun rivals.
With the loss, the men’s squad fell to 3-11 and 0-3 in the A-Sun Conference, while the FGCU Eagles improve to 8-7 and 3-1 in conference play.
“We did a great job of putting ourselves in position to win, but we simply did not play the big points as well as they did today,” said KSU head coach T.J. Greggs. “If we can play at this level the rest of the way, we will be going in the right direction.”
Alexander Peña was the shining spot for the Owls. The sophomore went undefeated in both of his singles and doubles matches. Peña and his senior partner, Gokalp Ozdemir combined for an 8-5 win over Eagles teammates Lance Lvovsky and Jackson Moore. The Owls lost the second doubles match, forcing freshman Tobi Menhofer and sophomore Louis Theodor
to win the third match and grab the doubles point for KSU. Down 6-2 early on, the pair fought back, forcing a tiebreaker point against the Eagles’ Jordi Vives and Dean Tsamas. However, the Owls comeback bid fell short, as FGCU grabbed the early 1-0 lead.
As singles action started, Peña would defeat his opponent in three sets, and grab the lone point for the Owls in the match. Freshman Maksim Yorsh fell to FGCU’s Tianyu Bao after forcing a comeback in the second set, only to fall to the reigning A-Sun Freshman of the Year in the third set. The Owls were persistent across the board, forcing two more games to three sets before falling to their opponents.
KSU lost the match 6-1, the lone point coming from Peña’s singles performance.
The women’s team also struggled against the Eagles, falling to FGCU 4-1. The Owls drop to 5-9 on the season and 0-3 in conference play, while the Eagles improve to 10-3 and 4-0 in league play.
The pairing of junior Alexandra Apostu and sophomore Jana Hueckinghaus grabbed an early victory for the Owls in doubles play, but KSU dropped the next two matches, and lost the doubles point to the Eagles.
The Owls grabbed a singles victory when Apostu defeated Johanna Sterkel, but the win proved to be too little, too late, as the Eagles had claimed the first two single victories. The decisive win came in the following match as Hueckinghaus dropped her match to the Eagles’ Gyanna Mandic.
Both tennis teams team will travel to Marietta on April 4 when KSU will face off against Jacksonville State.
