Middle Tennessee Triumphs in Senior-Day Doubleheader

Saturday, March 30

Murfreesboro, TN

11 AM

Middle Tennessee

UAB

3/30/2019 6:06:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - Middle Tennessee dominated both of their matches on the senior-day doubleheader this Saturday at the Adams Tennis Complex.

"I can't believe how fast the past four years has gone by," said MTSU Head Coach Jimmy Borendame. "(Pugh, Morillo Diaz and Morell) are great guys and on the court they've all worked extremely hard. Jacob works hard every single day. Luis Morillo (Diaz) has a huge heart and is a huge competitor. (Morell) here at the end (today) battled back to get the w. All three have been awesome ambassadors for MT tennis."

THANK YOU SENIORS 🎓

The three seniors have combined for 1️⃣5️⃣9️⃣ career single wins and 1️⃣0️⃣8️⃣ career double wins.

In total, 2️⃣6️⃣7️⃣ wins for the senior class of 2019. #SeniorDay #GoBlueRaiders pic.twitter.com/C4CGB1MEdc
— MT Men's Tennis (@MT_MensTennis) March 30, 2019

In the first match of the day, MTSU dominated conference opponent UAB 6-1. After earning the doubles point, the Blue Raiders got wins in singles play from: Tom Moonen, Chris Edge, Pavel Motl, Max Rauch and Gonzalo Morell.

In the second match, the Blue Raiders quickly made good work of Alabama State, 4-0. Morell and Motl clinched the first point of the match before Gonzalo Morell, Chris Edge and Francisco Rocha finished the sweep.

MTSU 6, UAB 1
Gonzalo Morell stood next to classmates Jacob Pugh and Luis Morillo Diaz. The senior trio was joined by their families, Middle Tennessee State Head Tennis Coach Jimmy Borendame and Athletic Director Chris Massaro. They smiled for a group photo. As Morell headed to the bench on court one to grab his racket, the reality that his storied career was dwindling down hit him. The Australian native had one more shot to provide some fireworks for the fans in Murfreesboro.

As the clouds crept in overhead, the fuse to those fireworks was in danger of not sparking. Morell fell in a tiebreaker in his first set. As he got a shot of water and ate a bit of his banana, the sun began to peek through the clouds. The fuse wasn't dampened just yet, as Morell forced a third and final set with a 6-2 win over UAB's Roman Postolka.

The third set would go to yet another tiebreak. Despite the clouds continuing to grow darker, the rain never fell and Morell lit the spark to set off the fireworks, winning the tiebreaker 10-8 to clinch the 74th singles victory of his career.

"The last tiebreak was like flipping a coin, you just didn't know how it'd go," Morell said. "I tried to stay positive and fought as hard as I could."

Morell's win was one of the crowning achievements to the hard work that he and his classmates put in over the past four seasons.

Morell's match wasn't the clincher for MT, however, as sophomore Chris Edge's 6-3, 6-4 win gave the Raiders their fourth and match-winning point of the day.

Freshman Pavel Motl also continued the role he's been on of late, collecting his 20th doubles victory of the season with Morell earlier in the match. In singles play, he defeated UAB's Nikolai Manchev in straight sets by a score of 6-2, 7-5 for his 21st singles win of the year, his fifth-straight win. Motl sits in the top-10 all-time in school history for both singles and doubles wins for freshman.

"The boys really trusted the fundamentals and executed (today)," Head Coach Jimmy Borendame said.

MTSU 4, ASU 0
The Blue Raiders continued their momentum from the top half of the doubleheader with a quick 4-0 sweep of Alabama State.

Doubles point finished fast as Max Rauch/Francisco Rocha and Gonzalo Morell/Pavel Motl defeated the Hornets 6-1 in both. No. 52 ranked pair after falling in the top half of the day, did not finish but was on the brink of victory at 5-1.

Just as quickly doubles went, singles went the same. Morell started explosively taking his match 6-3, 6-0 to give MT the 2-0 lead. Chris Edge followed it up with dominate work of his own, winning his match 6-2, 6-0. Freshman Francisco Rocha cleaned up with the clincher as he finished 6-0, 6-4.

Next Up
The Blue Raiders begin Conference USA pod play next Friday at UNC-Charlotte.

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Anthony Fiorella is a student writer for goblueraiders.com. Follow him on Twitter @a_fiorella74 and also follow @MTAthletics for more on the Blue Raiders.