The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s tennis team continues Southern Conference action with a pair of matches this weekend. The Mocs travel to Samford on Friday, April 9, and host Mercer on Sunday, April 11.
First serve against the Bulldogs is set for 3:00 p.m.
(E.D.T.) in Birmingham, Ala. Match time against the Bears is Noon at the UTC Tennis Center. A link for live scoring on the Mercer match is available on the men’s tennis schedule page on GoMocs.com.
UTC is currently 7-9 overall and 2-2 in SoCon action. The Mocs are fifth in the league standings behind ETSU (8-6, 5-0 SoCon), Samford (11-6, 4-0), Furman (7-11, 4-2) and Mercer (10-12, 3-2). Only the top four teams advance to the SoCon Tournament at Samford on April 23-24.
Chattanooga is coming off a 5-2 win at Belmont on Monday and has three league duals left on the schedule. In addition to this weekend’s matches, UTC also faces SoCon-foe UNCG on April 17 and Covenant College on April 20 in non-conference action.
Sophomore Tomas Rodriguez leads the team with an 18-9 singles record and a 9-7 mark at No. 1. His career singles record of 62-29 is two wins shy of tying Badr Bouabdellah (64-30 - 2005-08) for ninth place on the Mocs’ all-time wins list.
Rodriguez also leads the Mocs with a 15-10 doubles record and has won five in a row at No. 1 with freshman Peyton Gatti. Together they are 8-5 at the top spot in the doubles lineup. Rodriguez is 54-24 in doubles in his career, two wins shy of tying Mark Fynn (56-36 - 2004-07) and Brian Redmond (56-21 - 1982-85) for ninth on the Mocs’ all-time wins list.
Freshman Jeffrey Dewald has won two in a row in singles play, while sophomore Simon Labbe is up to 5-3 at No. 4 in the spring. Senior Turner Voges is 9-5 at No. 2, and sophomore Kerim Hyatt has the same mark at No. 3.
UTC is 19-21 in the all-time series against Samford that dates back to 1921. UTC won the last meeting 5-2 on April 3, 2019, in Birmingham, Ala. That snapped a nine-match run for the Bulldogs against the Mocs.
Chattanooga is 3-9 all-time against Mercer and trying to snap an eight-match slide in the series. UTC’s last win against the Bears was a 6-1 victory at home on March 4, 2008. Mercer won last year’s meeting 4-3 in Macon, Ga., on March 8.