University of Tennessee Athletics
University of Tennessee
Arkansas
VOLS TOP ARKANSAS; ADVANCE TO SECOND ROUND AT SEC TOURNAMENT
April 19, 2007 | Men's Tennis
April 19, 2007
The fifth-seeded Tennessee men's tennis team defeated the 12-seed Arkansas Razorbacks 4-1 Thursday night in the first round of the SEC Tournament at the W.T. "Dub" Robinson Tennis Stadium in Baton Rouge, La., to advance to the second round against LSU. The Vols are now 16-6 on the season.
"We survived and advanced and that's what you have to do in a tournament match," head coach Sam Winterbotham said. "We're excited to play LSU at home and see if we can continue moving through the draw."
The Vols won the doubles point for the 18th time in 22 matches. UT's Adam Hubble and Ben Rogers ran out to a 7-0 lead at the No. 2 position, eventually winning 8-1 over Dmitry Lebedev and Jorge Villanueva. Hubble and Rogers are 12-1 at the No. 2 slot. Bobby Cameron and Kaden Hensel clinched the point for the Vols with an 8-4 victory over 37th-ranked Colin Mascall and Blake Strode at the No. 1 court. The victory marked the ninth victory this season for the UT tandem over a ranked opponent.
Kiril Tcherveniachki extended the Big Orange lead with a dominating 6-1, 6-0 win over Gabriel Mattos at the No. 4 position. The UT senior is now 15-2 this season in dual-matches.
After the Razorbacks cut into Tennessee's lead, the Vols' other senior in the lineup, Rogers gave UT a two point cushion again with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Bradwin Williams at the No. 5 position. Rogers has a team-high 17 dual-match singles wins.
Freshman Chris Racz clinched the win for Tennessee with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Dmitry Vlaskin at the No. 6 position. Racz is quickly becoming Mr. Clutch for UT. The Philadelphia native has 11 dual-match singles wins on the season; six of those have clinched a Tennessee win.
Lebedev gave the Razorbacks (7-22, 0-11) their only point of the match with a 6-1, 6-2 over Cameron at the No. 3 position.
Tennessee faces No. 4 seed and tournament host LSU Friday at 6 p.m. ET. Live scoring for the match can be found at UTsports.com.
| No. 25 Tennessee 4, Arkansas 1 | |
| Singles | |
| 1. No. 43 Blake Strode (Ark) led No. 21 Kaden Hensel (UT) | 7-6, 4-0 |
| 2. No. 117 Davey Sandgren (UT) tied Colin Mascall (Ark) | 6-0, 4-6, 2-2 |
| 3. Dmitry Lebedev (Ark) def. No. 40 Bobby Cameron (UT) | 6-1, 6-2 |
| 4. Kiril Tcherveniachki (UT) def. Gabriel Mattos (Ark) | 6-1, 6-0 |
| 5. Ben Rogers (UT) def. Bradwin Williams (Ark) | 6-2, 6-3 |
| 6. Chris Racz (UT) def. Dmitry Vlaskin (Ark) | 6-4, 6-3 |
| Order of Finish: 4,3,5,6 | |
| Doubles | |
| 1. No. 21 Cameron/Hensel (UT) def. No. 37 Mascall/Strode (Ark) | 8-4 |
| 2. No. 31 Hubble/Rogers (UT) def. Lebedev/Villanueva (Ark) | 8-1 |
| 3. Hardegree/Sandgren (UT) led Mattos/Williams (Ark) | 7-6 |
| Order of Finish: 2,1 | |
