March 4, 2008
Complete Weekly Release in PDF Format 
SPARTANBURG, S.C. - After both USC Upstate tennis teams saw their seven-match winning streak end on Sunday at Winthrop, the squads will look to start new streaks with five matches against schools from Tennessee. The women's tennis team will kick off the stretch with teams from the Volunteer State on Wednesday when Austin Peay visits the USC Upstate Tennis Complex. Austin Peay, from the Ohio Valley Conference enters the match at 0-6.
This weekend, the Spartan men and women will head to Nashville, Tenn., for dual matches against Lipscomb and Belmont. On the men's side, Lipscomb is 0-10 overall and 0-2 in the A-Sun and Belmont is 0-7 overall and 0-2 in the A-Sun. On the women's side, Lipscomb is 0-8 overall and 0-2 in the A-Sun and Belmont is 3-5 overall and 0-2 in the A-Sun.`
Martinez Sets Program's Win Mark
Senior Diana Martinez Martinez, who now has a school-record 65 wins and a women's program record 58 records, passed two-time men's Division II All-American Stefan Dumitrescu, for the program record with combined wins against Mercer on Friday. She tied the record with an 8-2 win at No. 3 doubles with junior partner Maria Herrera against Karen Bellman and Amalia Bugge. She broke the mark with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Bellman at No. 4 singles.
Dumitrescu posted a 119-32 combined record during his four-year career. Martinez, a 2007 Academic All-American, now has a 123-46 combined record.
Lovera's Luck
Junior Daniela Lovera reached two milestones during the week, as she became the 10th player in school history to reach 70 combined wins on Friday against Mercer and became the 11th player in school history to reach 30 career singles wins on Saturday against Kennesaw State. She now has a 30-23 career singles record and a 43-17 record in doubles play.
Renzo's Roll
Sophomore Renzo Airaldi posted a three-set win over Mercer's No. 2 singles player, Ivan Bensacon, on Friday to become the 11th player in school history to reach 20 singles wins in a season in program history. It was the first of three wins during the weekend for Airaldi, the Spartans' No. 2 singles player, as he moved into a tie for fourth in school history with a 22-4 singles record. He is just five wins away from setting the Spartans' single-season record for wins, set by James Homan, who went 27-6 in 1991-92.
Super-Novo
Junior Anna Novo already has recorded 19 singles wins on the season, which is already tied for fourth-best in school history. The Venezuelan junior has tallied an impressive 19-4 overall record thanks to a 12-2 fall and a 7-2 start in dual meets. A two-time Division II All-American, Novo has a chance at becoming one of just four players in school history to record 20 wins in a season this week and needs just four to break the school record of 22, set by herself and senior Diana Martinez during the 2006-07 season.
A Century's Worth Of Wins
Senior Sebastian Gonzales-Orbegoso became the fourth player in the men's program's history to reach 100 career combined wins, as he posted three wins during the Spartans' two dual meet wins at the Clemson Spring Classic. Gonzales-Orbegoso became the fourth player in school history to cross the 100-combined win mark, thanks to three wins on the day, two in singles play and one in doubles. He has 50 career singles wins and 52 doubles wins, as he joins Diego Sist, Jose Luis Reyes and Stefan Dumitrescu, who were all Division II All-Americans, in the club. With 102 combined wins, he is just one behind Sist's total of 103 set from 2002-06.
Eyeing His Assistant's Spot?
Head coach Alessandro De Marzo, who earlier this season became the third coach in program history to reach 100 career wins, is now quickly looking to assume the women's program's all-time leader in wins. With 53 wins entering the week, the fourth-year head coach is just four wins away from passing his current assistant and former head coach Tami Matheny, who posted 57 wins with the women's program from 1998-2004. Matheny, who led the Spartans to a NCAA Division II Regional berth in 2003, handed the reins of the tennis program over to De Marzo in 2004. In the last three years, De Marzo led the Spartans to three appearances in the NCAA Tournament and took the 2007 team to the NCAA National Tournament for the first time in school history.
