Airaldi Wins 25th Match Of The Season As Upstate Downs Jacksonville, 7-0
3/29/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
March 29, 2008
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Two players drew one step closer to single-season and career singles wins records on Saturday morning as the USC Upstate men's tennis team handled Jacksonville, 7-0, in Atlantic Sun Conference play, with sophomore Renzo Airaldi (Lima, Peru/Domingo Faustino Sarmiento) became the second player in school history to win 25 singles matches in a season and senior Sebastian Gonzales-Orbegoso (Lima, Peru/Cambridge College) became the second in school history to reach 55 singles wins.
With the win, Upstate improved to 13-5 overall and 6-1 in the Atlantic Sun Conference to stay within a match of ETSU, which leads the conference with a 17-3 overall and 7-0 conference mark. Jacksonville falls to 5-10 overall and 3-4 in the league.
Airaldi, who took his singles match in three sets, defeated Francisco Riveroll, 6-0, 4-6, 6-2, at No. 2 singles to win his 25th match of the season, moving just one win shy of the 16-year old school record of 27 wins set by James Homan in 1992. Gonzales-Orbegoso defeated Vinicius Craveiro, 6-3, 6-2 at No. 5 singles for his 55th career win, just two shy of the career singles record of 57 set by Jorge Ventura from 1993-96. Both players have four dual matches left this season to break the marks.
The Spartans took two of the three doubles matches to earn the point, as sophomore Javier Tori (Lima, Peru/Markham College) and Airaldi handled Marcos Oliveira and Craveiro, 8-2, at No. 2 doubles and sophomore Jack Roux (Santiago, Chile/Subercaseaux) and junior Sandy Franz (Duesseldorf, Germany/Berufskolleg Hilden) added an 8-4 win over Alberto Lopez and Clay Garrett at No. 3 doubles.
Upstate kept the momentum going in singles play, as sophomore Arnaldo Lovera (Caracas, Venezuela) posted a 6-1, 6-0 win at No. 5 singles against Lopez and Tori defeated Oliveira, 6-4, 6-0, at No. 3 singles to go with Airaldi and Gonzales-Orbegoso's wins. Franz posted a 6-2, 7-6 (2) win over Victor Vaz at No. 1 singles and freshman Nico Ospina (Bogota, Colombia/ S.E. de Manizales) notched his first career dual match win, 6-1, 6-4, over Clay Garrett at No. 6.
Upstate hosts Garner-Webb looking to stay close in the hunt for a piece of the conference title on Friday at 2:30 p.m. at the USC Upstate Tennis Complex.
Men's Tennis Match Results USC Upstate 7, Jacksonville 0 Singles competition 1. Sandy Franz (UPST) def. Victor Vaz (JU) 6-2, 7-6 (7-2) 2. Renzo Airaldi (UPST) def. Francisco Riveroll (JU) 6-0, 4-6, 6-2 3. Javier Tori (UPST) def. Marcos Oliveira (JU) 6-4, 6-0 4. S. Gonzales-Orbegoso (UPST) def. Vinicius Craveiro (JU) 6-3, 6-2 5. Arnaldo Lovera (UPST) def. Alberto Lopez (JU) 6-1, 6-0 6. Nicolas Ospina (UPST) def. Clay Garrett (JU) 6-1, 6-4 Doubles competition 1. Francisco Riveroll/Victor Vaz (JU) def. Leandro Osorio/S. Gonzales- Orbegoso (UPST) 8-4 2. Javier Tori/Renzo Airaldi (UPST) def. Marcos Oliveira/Vinicius Craveiro (JU) 8-2 3. Jack Roux/Sandy Franz (UPST) def. Alberto Lopez/Clay Garrett (JU) 8-4 Match Notes: USC Upstate 13-5, 6-1 A-Sun Jacksonville 5-10, 3-4 A-Sun
