#21 Blue Raiders sweep Princeton and Alabama A&M in Sunday Doubleheader

Sunday, February 5

Murfreesboro, Tenn.

12 PM

Middle Tennessee

Princeton

2/5/2023 6:30:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score 1 Box Score 2 Photo Gallery Photo Gallery 2

By: Anthony Fiorella, MTSU Athletic Communications

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Middle Tennessee looked to string together its' first three-match win streak of the young season together at the Adams Tennis Complex on Sunday, and the 21^st ranked Blue Raiders did just that with a pair of wins over Princeton, beating the Tigers 5-2, and Alabama A&M, defeating the Bulldogs 7-0.

The Blue Raiders clinched the doubles point in both matches, with the veteran pairing of Stijn Slump and Pavel Motl picking it up against Princeton and Pavel Motl and Shu Matsuoka getting it against Alabama A&M. The no. 26^th ranked duo of Oskar Brostrom Poulsen and Francisco Rocha picked up a 6-4 win against.

Blue Raider freshman Baran Soyler and Shu Matsuoka made their spring debut's against Alabama A&M in doubles, with Matsuoka playing with Pavel Motl on court one and Soyler playing with Stijn Slump on court three. Matsuoka and Motl went on to a dominant 6-1 win while Soyler and Slump went unfinished up 5-2.

In singles matchups, Middle Tennessee took four matches against Princeton and six against Alabama A&M.

In the Princeton match, Stijn Slump made quick work of blue chip recruit Fnu Nindnjianzan with a 6-4, 6-2 win. Fellow seniors Pavel Motl and Francisco Rocha wrapped things up for the Blue Raiders, with Rocha clinching the match just after Princeton made it 3-1 to put the Blue Raiders up 4-1 with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 win that should help improve his ranking from 109 in the country after taking down Will Peters, who has been ranked as high as 17 in his career.

Ondrej Horak extended his hot start to 7-0 this year in singles, picking up a win over Princeton's Thomas Bosancic in three sets and Alabama A&M's Chetanna Amadike in straight sets.

Head Coach Jimmy Borendame

On winning the first doubleheader of the year: "I'm happy with how we played today. The only two matches we lost were both 7-6 in the third set. Princeton battled hard. They've beat Ole Miss and Vanderbilt. They're really young and talented. To get those matches against them, even some that we were down in. Pavel had a big comeback and in both matches we did good in doubles. I really feel like it's hard for opponents to take four singles matches from us, so winning the doubles point is huge."

On veterans clinching against Princeton: "It was huge in the way that we won. We had kind of let them back in the match a bit after we won all six first sets. We held strong with Francisco winning in the third set. It shows we're all resilient and we're going to keep fighting.

On Shu Matsuoka and Baran Soyler's debut's: "Both of them did great. What's really exciting is that the future is bright. The freshman and sophomores are really strong. Shu and Baran were dominant today. I'm really excited about them."

Player's Perspective: Freshman Baran Soyler

On making his MTSU debut: "I was excited to play my first match for MTSU and as a team we were all excited to win both matches. We were just happy to get the wins."

On pausing in the middle of singles play due to having the wrong opponent on his court: "I was supposed to play against Alabama A&M's number four player, and ended up starting a match with the guy that was their number five player and going up 1-0. Once we figured out the mix up, they switched things over and we kept playing from the first game."

On the success of the freshman class overall: "Shu's first match was today, as well. We both were nervous coming in but I think I can say we both did our best. We all have to work really hard and we will keep having success."

Princeton
DOUBLES
1. No. 26 Oskar Brostrom Poulsen/ Francisco Rocha (MTSU) def. Fnu Nindunjianzan/ Will Peters (Princeton) 6-4
2. Stijn Slump/ Pavel Motl (MTSU) def. Thomas Bosancic/ Filippos Astreinidis 6-2
3. Ondrej Horak/ Marcel Kamrowski (MTSU) vs. Ellis Short/ Alan Kam 5-5 unf.
Order of finish (1,2)

SINGLES
1. Stijn Slump (MTSU) def. Fnu Nidunjianzan (Princeton) 6-4, 6-2
2. No. 109 Francisco Rocha (MTSU) def. Will Peters (Princeton) 6-3, 3-6, 6-3
3. Sebastian Sec (Princeton) def. No. 60 Oskar Brostrom Poulsen (MTSU) 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4 tiebreak)
4. Ondrej Horak (MTSU) def. Thomas Bosancic (Princeton) 7-6 (9-7 tiebreak), 6-7 (7-1 tiebreak), 10-4 (sudden death)
5. Ellis Short (Princeton) def. Marcel Kamrowski (MTSU) 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (8-6 tiebreak)
6. Pavel Motl (MTSU) def. Filippos Astreinidis (Princeton) 7-6, 6-4
Order of finish (1, 6, 3, 2, 5, 4)

Alabama A&M
DOUBLES
1. Pavel Motl/ Shu Matsuoka (MTSU) def. Arnav Pathange/ Divesh Gahlot (AAMU) 6-1
2. Oskar Brostrom Poulsen/ Ondrej Horak (MTSU) def. Chetanna Amadike/ Yin Chih Lan (AAMU) 6-3
3. Stijn Slump/ Baran Soyler (MTSU) vs. Freddie Lawrence/ German Ruiz Crespo (AAMU) 5-2 unf.
Order of finish (2, 1)

SINGLES
1. Stijn Slump (MTSU) def. Yin Chih Lan (AAMU) 6-1, 6-1
2. No. 60 Oskar Brostrom Poulsen (MTSU) def. Divesh Gahlot (AAMU) 6-1, 6-2
3. Ondrej Horak (MTSU) def. Chetanna Amadike (AAMU) 6-1, 6-1
4. Baran Soyler (MTSU) def. Arnav Pathange (AAMU) 6-0, 6-0
5. Pavel Motl (MTSU) def. Freddie Lawrence (AAMU) 6-1, 6-0
6. Shu Matsuoka (MTSU) def. German Ruiz Crespo (AAMU) 6-1, 6-1
Order of finish (5, 1, 3, 4, 2, 6)

NEXT UP
The Blue Raiders welcome the Rice Owls to the Adams Tennis Complex for the first Conference USA matchup of the season this Friday at 5:00 p.m.

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