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The Mountaineers (10-5, 4-1 SoCon) have won six of their last seven matches, including four league wins in a row. Earlier this week, the Black and Gold polished off a 5-2 victory over Elon on Wednesday and a 7-0 sweep of The Citadel on Thursday.
Senior Alain Humblet pulled off a 6-0, 6-0 shutout at No. 3 singles in Thursday's match against The Citadel for his sixth win in a row. Reigning SoCon Player of the Week Alex Markov was challenged in his No. 1 singles match on Thursday but rallied to put away Bulldog David Orces, 3-6, 6-3, (11-9), completing the Mountaineer sweep. Together, Humblet and Markov have combined for an overall 10-1 record since teaming up in February.
UNCG (7-9, 4-2 SoCon) has had an up-and-down season, as the Spartans have alternated wins and losses over their last 11 matches. Saturday's match is the Spartans' first in a week, following a 3-4 loss to Wofford last weekend.
Against common non-conference opponents, both UNCG and ASU notched wins over UNC Asheville, Gardner-Webb and Belmont, while both teams lost to Charlotte. Appalachian defeated East Carolina, 5-1, while UNCG fell 2-5 to the Pirates.
UNCG's No. 1 player, Orcun Seyrek has posted an 11-5 record this season, including 8-2 in his last 10 matches. Behind Seyrek, Ahmet Sarioglu is 12-4 at No. 2 and has won his last eight straight matches. UNCG's weakness is hidden in the bottom of its lineup, as the Spartans have gone 22-42 in singles between No. 3 and No. 6.
After Saturday, the Mountaineers play their final road match at Presbyterian on Tuesday at 2:30 p.m. before returning to host Wofford on Wednesday in the first of four home matches to conclude the regular season.
