Following a 3-1 home stand, the Tech men’s tennis team traveled to NC on March 30 to take on fellow ACC members North Carolina and Duke. The Jackets could not replicate their success on the road and fell to UNC and Duke, 4-3 and 6-1 respectively.
Tech started out the day against UNC by winning two doubles matches, capturing the doubles point. The No. 7 ranked team of junior Juan Spir and senior Kevin King won the first match 8-6, and senior Dusan Miljevic teamed with freshman Eduardo Segura to win the day’s third match.
In the singles portion of the match, UNC won the first three points thanks to straight-set wins by the fifth, third and sixth ranked players.
Tech finally recorded its second point of the match when junior Juan Melian won a thrilling match, 7-5, 6-2. Spir followed that match with a three-set victory, which required two tiebreakers to finish.
The deciding point came down to a matchup between the No. 1 ranked players for each team.
King won the first set in the match 7-6 and fatigue seemed to play a factor for him throughout the remainder of the match. King went on to lose the final two sets 6-1, 6-2 sealing the match for UNC.
Tech’s next opponent on April 1 was No. 6 ranked Duke. Duke scored the first three points of the match and Tech was never able to recover.
Duke captured the first point of the day when its second and third ranked doubles teams won the first two doubles matches of the day.
Tech’s No. 1 ranked doubles team did beat Duke’s team 9-7, but the win did not factor into the scoring.
Tech’s fifth and sixth ranked teams lost in straight sets, giving Duke a commanding 3-0 lead.
The most thrilling match of the day came next, with Spir defeating his opponent 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-3). The win proved to be Tech’s first and only win of the day.
Miljevic looked to secure a second point for the Jackets after he convincingly took the first set from his opponent, 6-3. However, Miljevic lost the match’s final set on a tiebreaker, 7-6 (7-0).
Tech would lose the final two matches of the day, with freshmen Sebastian Lopez and Vikram Hundal each losing their matches in straight sets to give the Blue Devils the 6-1 team match win. The loss by the Jackets dropped the team to 8-9 overall and 3-4 in conference.
Tech returns home this weekend to take on Virginia Tech and Virginia on Friday and Saturday at the Bill Moore Tennis Center.