Men's Tennis Completes Undefeated Horizon League Slate with 7-0 Win at Tennessee State

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Completing Horizon League play a perfect 10-0 in its first year in the league, the Belmont University men's tennis team closed out the regular season with yet another 7-0 sweep Friday afternoon at Tennessee State. The Bruins, who finish the regular season with a program-record 19 victories, earned their fourth consecutive sweep and eighth total of the year with a dominant showing at the Hadley Park Tennis Center in the Music City.
 
Extending its winning streak to 12, Belmont battled through a tightly-contested doubles point before taking five of the six singles matches in straight sets.
 
The host Tigers (10-14, 6-4), who will be the South Division No. 3 seed at next weekend's Horizon League Tournament with the loss, claimed only two sets on the day. Junior Tomas Luis and sophomore Ian Cruz clinched the doubles point at the No. 3 spot with a 7-5 win over Tennessee State's Jonasz Dziopak and Nicholas Adamec. At the top doubles position, the nationally-ranked duo of graduate student Marko Ilic and junior Riccardo Trione took care of the Tigers' Taj Hibbert and Diego Britt-Alvarez, 6-3.
 
Tennessee State's Pierre Copin and Nil Moinet got a 6-4 triumph against senior Jack Randall and junior Alfred Wallin at No. 2 doubles.
 
In singles action, Wallin wasted very little time in dismissing Moinet 6-0, 6-1 at the second spot while Cruz topped Britt-Alvarez 6-2, 6-1 on court four. Trione also cruised in his singles match at the No. 5 position, defeating Copin 6-2, 6-2.
 
On court three, Luis recovered from a 6-4 opening set loss to Hibbert with a 6-4 second set win before prevailing in a lopsided 10-1 super tiebreaker in the third. At the top of the lineup, Ilic took out Dziopak 6-3, 6-4 and Randall put an exclamation point on the afternoon with a 6-2, 7-6 (3) victory against Adamec at the sixth spot.
 
Up Next
With their Horizon League South Division title, which they won last weekend, the Bruins are the South Division No. 1 seed for next weekend's 2023 Horizon League Men's Tennis Championship, held Friday-Sunday, April 28-30 at the Varsity Tennis Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Belmont has earned a first-round bye and will take on the winner of North Division No. 2 seed Youngstown State and South Division No. 3 seed Tennessee State Saturday, April 29 at 2 p.m. CT/3 p.m. ET in the semifinals.
 
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