Tennessee Tech University Team Page
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – Golden Eagles Dean O’Brien and Kelly Holtzhausen each notched victories in their No. 1 singles contests Saturday, but the Tennessee Tech tennis teams came out with different results in their Ohio Valley Conference matches against UT Martin.
The Golden Eagle men’s team claimed a 5-2 win over the Skyhawks on the strength of five singles victories. In the women’s match, Holtzhausen remained unbeaten in singles play this season but it was the Skyhawks who claimed the 5-2 verdict.
The Tech men will host Appalachian State Sunday at 11 a.m., while the women’s team gets the day off.
“Give credit to UT Martin,” said Golden Eagle coach Dan Silverstein. “They came in and took the doubles points from us, and I take the blame for that. Our energy just wasn’t there to start the match. We were flat, but we can fix that.”
Silverstein was happy that his men’s team was able to overcome its sluggish start.
“We might have taken UT Martin too lightly, but after losing the doubles point I was proud that we came back and won five of six singles points to win the match,” he said. “Dean continues to lead us on the court, and James (Crawford) stepped in at No. 6 and won, and he gave us some depth.”
UT Martin also got the doubles point in the men’s match, winning at No. 1 and No. 2. The middle contest went to Alfredo Krywacz and Petr Markov, 9-8 (7-5) over Alex Chen and Mario Gutierrez to decide the point.
It was Chen who had the satisfaction of winning the match when he won his No. 2 singles battle to clinch Tech’s fourth point of the day. He downed Krywacz, 6-3, 6-2, to put Tech on top, 4-2.
O’Brien, a sophomore from South Africa, added the fifth point for Tech when he won 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) at No. 1 singles over Stephan Bruwer. The win raised O’Brien’s record to 9-1 this spring.
Tech also got straight set singles wins from Justin Kirstein and Oscar Pachon at No. 4 and No. 5. Down at the No. 6 singles match, sophomore James Crawford was inserted into the lineup and earned a 6-0, 6-0 victory.
The men’s team improved to 5-5 overall and remained unbeaten in the OVC at 2-0. The Tech women’s record slipped to 2-5 overall and 1-1 in the league.
