April 8, 2009
Final Stats
SPARTANBURG, S.C. -
It lived up to the billing.
No. 65 USC Upstate. No. 63 ETSU.
Two perfect Atlantic Sun Conference records.
One match for the championship. And what a match.
Down 3-0 and with their backs against the wall, the USC Upstate men's tennis team fought back with a furious rally, winning three matches within 10 minutes to tie the match and leave everything riding on the final match. ETSU's Alex Ahlgren clinched the match by winning six straight games in the third set, giving ETSU the 4-3 win and clinching its third straight Atlantic Sun Conference regular season championship on Wednesday afternoon at the USC Upstate Tennis Complex.
The Spartans , down to their last point after dropping the doubles point and matches at No. 1 and No. 3, stormed back with three rapid-pace victories. Freshman Ramiro Blanco gutted out a three-set win over Robin Aker at No. 5, 6-1, 5-7, 6-3 to complete the first perfect season in school history, as he won all 23 of his matches.
Freshman Edgar Rodriguez added a 7-6, 6-3 win over Sander Gille at No. 2 moments later to cut the lead to a point and an emotional Jack Roux held the front court and large crowd in rapture, as he let out a roar after clinching a 7-5, 6-1 win over Grega Teraz at No. 4 to tie the match.
The final match came down to No. 6 singles and Ahlgren, after dropping the first set to senior Leandro Osorio, 6-3, was able to come back and post consecutive 6-1 wins to clinch ETSU's 32nd straight A-Sun win.
Upstate lost both the No. 1 and No. 2 doubles but Rodriguez and Blanco did down Isaza and Akser at No. 3 doubles, 8-6.
Roux set a new single season record with 46 combined wins on the season, posting 24 doubles wins and 22 singles wins on the season, passing the mark of 45 set by Jorge Ventura in 1996.
The Spartans finished the season with a 22-3 overall record and a 9-1 mark in the A-Sun, good for second to the perfect Bucs, who are 11-7 overall and 9-0 in the A-Sun. The loss also snapped the school-record 20-match winning streak.
