March 18, 2008
ATLANTA – The Georgia Tech men’s team (11-5) picked up a pair of non-conference wins Tuesday over Wofford (7-8) and Chattanooga (10-4) at the Bill Moore Tennis Center. The Yellow Jackets were led by their freshmen, who accounted for nine singles wins in the two matches.
Guillermo Gomez and George Gvelesiani opened the early match against Wofford with a quick 8-1 win in the No. 2 doubles position. On court one, Scott Blackmon and Ryan Smith clinched the point with an 8-3 win over Andrew Stubbs and George Kernodle. Eliot Potvin and Miguel Muguruza won the final doubles match for Tech with an 8-7 win in the third spot.
In singles play, Smith and Blackmon pushed the lead to 3-0 with straight set wins in the No. 2 and No. 3 positions, respectively. Potvin clinched the win with a 6-2, 7-6 (7-4) win over Scott Collins in the fourth spot in the lineup. Gomez, Muguruza and Austin Roebuck completed the shutout with wins at the No. 1, No. 5 and No. 6 positions.
“We played two tough teams today,” head coach Kenny Thorne said. “They were both tougher than the score indicated. I was proud of the way our guys came out this afternoon after playing a tough match this morning.”
In the second match of the day, Potvin and Doug Kenny took the first doubles match with an 8-3 win in the third position over Hasan Hamadeh and Robert Diamond of Chattanooga. The Jackets took the doubles point with an 8-4 win from Blackmon and Smith in the No. 1 doubles spot.
Potvin and Kenny made it 3-0 with wins in the third and six singles positions, respectively. Sophomore Austin Roebuck clinched the match for the Jackets with a, 6-0, 6-3, win over Hamadeh in the No. 5 spot. Muguruza came from behind for the second time today with a 2-6, 6-1, 6-2 win in the fourth position. Gomez and Smith completed the shutout with wins in the top two positions in the lineup.
“Ryan [Smith] came through in two tough matches today, he fought really hard through the last match,” Thorne said. “Austin [Roebuck] also did well, he came out and took care of business in the afternoon, as well as in the morning. This afternoon Doug [Kenny] got off the court first and was a catalyst for our singles play. Today we had some good match play competition and hopefully it will make us a little more ready for this weekend.”
The Jackets will be back in action this weekend with two conference matches at home. Tech will play Virginia Friday at 3:00 p.m. and Virginia Tech Saturday at 2:30 p.m. Both matches will be at Bill Moore Tennis Center. Live stats will be available on RamblinWreck.com.
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