East Carolina Tennis Edges UAB, 4-3

April 3, 2009

GREENVILLE, N.C. - A convincing doubles sweep and a match-deciding 7-6, 6-4 victory by Jaroslav Horvath over Dan Cornei in a No. 1 singles battle lifted No. 70 East Carolina to a 4-3 win over UAB in opening day action of the Conference USA Shootout Friday afternoon at the ECU Tennis Complex.

The Pirates, who extended their consecutive match win streak to 12 straight, improved to 16-1 and equaled the program's all-time single-season record for victories that was earlier set in 1957 and 2000. The setback dropped the Blazers' mark to 7-8 this spring.

East Carolina set the tone early as Bryan Oakley and Stephen Whitwell teamed up for an 8-4 triumph over Tyrone Ewels and Daniel Moser at the No. 3 position. Horvath and Denis Ermilov followed by adding an 8-5 win over Dennis Ehrlich and Slawomir Szeremeta at No. 1 before Aleksey Kochetov and Henrik Skalmerud closed out pairs play with an 8-6 decision over Alex Emery and Brian Ly at No. 2 to give the Pirates a 1-0 lead.

In singles play, ECU also picked up straight-set victories at the No. 2 and No. 6 slots as Whitwell dismissed Emery 7-6, 6-3 and Oakley handled Thomas Petrich 6-3, 6-4.

UAB used wins by Ly over Ermilov (6-2, 6-2) at No. 3, Moser over Skalmerud (6-4, 6-2) at No. 4 and Ewels over Kochetov (6-2, 7-5) at No. 5 to capture the other three matches.

East Carolina, which suffered its only loss of the season against Appalachian State on Feb. 15, will try to make it 13 in a row Saturday when it faces Southern Miss at 2 p.m. before closing out league play Sunday with a meeting against UCF beginning at 12 noon.

In other C-USA Shootout action Friday, UCF nipped Southern Miss 4-3 in the opener.

NO. 70 EAST CAROLINA 4, UAB 3
Singles Play
No. 1 - Jaroslav Horvath (ECU) def. Dan Cornei (UAB); 7-6, 6-4
No. 2 - Stephen Whitwell (ECU) def. Alex Emery (UAB); 7-6, 6-3
No. 3 - Brian Ly (UAB) def. Denis Ermilov (ECU); 6-2, 6-2
No. 4 - Daniel Moser (UAB) def. Henrik Skalmerud (ECU); 6-4, 6-2
No. 5 - Tyrone Ewels (UAB) def. Aleksey Kochetov (ECU); 6-2, 7-5
No. 6 - Bryan Oakley (ECU) def. Thomas Petrich (UAB); 6-3, 6-4
Doubles Play
No. 1 - Ermilov/Horvath (ECU) def. Dennis Ehrlich/Slawomir Szeremeta (UAB) 8-5
No. 2 - Kochetov/Skalmerud (ECU) def. Emery/Ly (UAB) 8-6
No. 3 - Oakley/Whitwell (ECU) def. Ewels/Moser (UAB) 8-4
Team Records: UAB 7-8, East Carolina 16-1

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