The ball has bounced in favor of the ETSU men’s tennis team once again, now wining 13 straight matches.
It appears that no matter how well the team does or how many individual awards are given out, the Bucs keep a straight head and an eye on playing well, aiming to win the SoCon Championship.
Earlier in the year, head coach Yaser Zaatini stated that he had high expectations for the season. “As a team you have to thrive to win,” he said.
These expectations certainly have been met. Over the past weekend, the team used its abilities to sweep both matches 7-0.
This now makes the Buccaneers 15-3 overall for the season and undefeated 8-0 in the SoCon.
The first match of the weekend began Saturday against UNC-Greensboro, but was suspended because of rain. Before the cancellation though, the Buccaneer’s came out strong against the Spartans, winning the doubles point.
Play resumed on Sunday afternoon after the regularly scheduled match against Elon University. The Buccaneer men’s tennis team finished powerfully against the Spartans seizing the singles matches with a 7-0 final.
Also on Sunday, the Buccaneer men’s tennis team successfully beat Elon 7-0. All of the players stepped up, winning both doubles and singles, to claim the victory.
This was an important match because it was a battle of the league’s only undefeated No.1 singles men’s tennis players, Oscar Posada of ETSU and Pramote Malasitt of Elon.
Posada, who is ranked 40th as a NCAA Division I player, beat Elon’s Malasitt 6-4, 6-4 in the first game.
Then in the second game, Malasitt was down 5-3 but battled back to win the game and make the score 5-4. Posada though took the next game to finish the set 6-4 and win the match.
These wins brought about two more individual recognitions to the team. ETSU Sophomore Felix Insaurralde composed his 29th singles win of the season at the No. 2 spot Sunday, tying him for ninth place on ETSU’s top 10 singles win list for a season.
In addition, Posada, who already last week won Player of the week for SoCon tennis and Student Athlete of the Week, has now been named as the Southern Conference’s men’s tennis Athlete of the Month for March.
At the No. 1 position in March, Posada had nine wins and is undefeated 6-0 in the conference. In the Bucs’ wins over Appalachian State and Winthrop, he won both deciding matches.
His talent also earned him wins over the College of Charleston, The Citadel, Davidson, Chattanooga and Furman. With these awards, he has every right to brag or be arrogant about his current rankings, but Posada is not, and he certainly does not feel the pressure to win.
“I guess I just want to help the team win the conference,” said Posada. “You can not win all the time; you just have to give 100 percent on the court.”
The Bucs aim to continue the team’s winning streak when the team returns home to host two more Southern Conference matches.
The first against Georgia Southern on Saturday April 9 at noon then again on April 15 against Wofford.

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