Saturday, March 08, 2008

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (March 8, 2008) - The 56th-ranked ETSU men's tennis team defeated Atlantic Sun conference opponent Lipscomb, 4-1 on Saturday night. ETSU improves to 11-3 overall and 3-0 in conference play while the Bisons fall to 0-10, 0-3.

The Bucs took the early 1-0 lead as they claimed the doubles point. In the top position Oscar Posada (Valencia, Venezuela) and Lisandro Picardo (Mar del Plata, Argentina) defeated Mario Hernandez and Daniel Hangstefer, 8-5 while Alex Ahlgren (Tyreso, Sweden) and Daniel Isaza (Medellin, Colombia) dropped Josh Cummings and Andy Mizell, 8-5 in the No. 2 slot. In the third position Sebastian Serrano (Cartagena, Colombia) and Sergio Velez (Medellin, Colombia) dropped Jeff West and Joe McArdle, 8-1.

Competing in No. 3 singles Oscar Posada defeated Josh Cummings, 6-2, 7-5, while Alex Ahlgren dropped Mario Hernandez, 6-2, 6-4 in the fourth position. In the No. 5 position Sergio Velez cruised past James Murrell, 6-2, 6-1 while Jason Ramski (Chicago, Ill.) fell to Joe McArdle, 7-5, 6-2 in the sixth position. The singles matches in the one and two positions were not contested.   

"We played pretty solid tonight. We played really well in the doubles and we were able to give some of the newer guys a chance to compete and they played really well. Alex stood strong despite not having played much in singles this year and Sergio played well despite being a little winded. Jason who is the hardest worker on the team really deserved the chance to play and came up a bit short but he showed a lot of heart," said head coach Yaser Zaatini.

The Bucs will be back in action on March 8 as they take on Lipscomb. The match is set to begin at Noon. Follow all ETSU men's tennis action at www.ETSUBucs.com.

#56 ETSU 4, Lipscomb 1

Singles

No. 3- Oscar Posada (ETSU) def. Josh Cummings (LU) 6-2, 7-5

No. 4- Alex Ahlgren (ETSU) def. Mario Hernandez (LU) 6-2, 6-4

No. 5- Sergio Velez (ETSU) def. James Murrell (LU) 6-2, 6-1

No. 6- Joe McArdle (LU) def. Jason Ramski (ETSU) 7-5, 6-2

Doubles

No. 1- Posada/Picardo (ETSU) def. Hernandez/Hangstefer (LU) 8-5

No. 2- Ahlgren/Issaza (ETSU) def. Cummings/Mizell (LU) 8-5

No. 3- Serrano/Velez (ETSU) def. West/McArdle (LU) 8-1