Jan. 30, 2008

Virginia Tech Rolls Past Middle Tennessee State, 6-1

BLACKSBURG, Va. - The Virginia Tech men's tennis team improved to 4-0 on the season with a convincing 6-1 victory on No. 59 Middle Tennessee State Wednesday afternoon at the Burrows-Burleson Tennis Center on the Virginia Tech campus.

Tech (4-0), ranked No. 35 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association preseason national poll, swept the doubles matches for the first point and took five of the six singles contests to secure the victory. The Red Raiders fall to 2-2 on the young season.

In singles, Albert Larregola (Sr., Lleida, Spain), ranked No. 42 nationally, won a tough 7-5, 3-6, 6-4, No. 1 match over Marc Rocafort and Nicolas Delgado de Robles (Jr., Madrid, Spain), ranked 86th, defeated John Peers at No. 2, 7-6, 6-1. Yoann Re (So., Verdun, Quebec, Canada) battled his way to a 6-2, 4-6, 6-2, win at No. 3 against Morgan Richard, Pedro Graber (So., Santiago, Chile) took a 6-2, 7-5, decision at No. 4 versus Chris Nowak and Sebastien Jacques (Fr., Magog, Quebec, Canada) won his No. 5 match, 6-4, 6-4, over Joao Paoliello.

Tech suffered its' only loss of the day at No. 6 where Brandon Corace (Jr., Naples, Fla.) dropped a tight, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6, match to Richard Cowden.

The Hokies took the doubles point as Delgado de Robles/Graber cruised past Cowden/Richard, 8-3, at No. 1 and Corace/Larregola picked up a 8-5 victory at No. 2 versus Nowak/Peers. Tech completed the doubles sweep as Jacques/Re defeated Paoliello/Rocafort, 8-7, in the No. 3 match. Since the doubles point had already been decided, a tiebreaker was played at 7-7.

The Hokies return to action on Sat., Feb. 2, when Tech hosts No. 39 Penn State in a noon contest at the Burrows-Burleson Tennis Center.