Elon 6, Georgia Southern 1
STATESBORO, Ga. - In a Southern Conference match Tuesday afternoon (March 24), the Elon Phoenix kept their regular season win streak over Georgia Southern alive with a 6-1 decision. The conference foes battled it out for just shy of five hours at the Hanner Tennis Complex. The loss dropped the Eagles to 5-8 overall and 1-4 in conference games, while Elon improved to 12-4 and 5-0 in SoCon action.
Despite a hard fought doubles point on all three courts, Elon won the early advantage. The Phoenix walked away with a quick win at the one seed, but courts two and three battled it out to the end. Jayraj Jadeja and Mark Paetz kept a consistent one game lead to 4-3 when Alberto Rojas and Cody Stauffer-MacDowell took the next two points for a 5-4 Elon advantage at No. 3. Elon closed out the win by an 8-5 decision securing the early advantage for the Phoenix. Court two found themselves tied at 4-all before Elon held serve and broke the Eagles for a 6-4 lead. The Eagles and Phoenix traded points for a 7-5 game when Elon served out the match at 40-0 to complete the sweep.
Fueled by the pace of doubles action, the Phoenix took five of six singles matches for a 6-1 win. Elon pushed the score to 2-0 with a quick decision at the six seed before Jadeja recorded the Eagles’ lone point. The junior from Hayes, England handed Philip Nemec only his fourth loss - and first conference loss - of the dual season with a commanding 6-2, 6-0 mark at the two position. Jadeja’s win snapped an eight-match win streak Nemec has held since February 15, which included four conference matches.
Elon captured a straight set win at five before Rojas clinched the conference win at the four seed. Alain Garrido won the first set over Rojas who took the second at 7-5. Garrido was then forced to retire in the third set, securing the win for Elon.
Georgia Southern dropped opening sets at one and three, but Eagles De Weerdt and Bekkers rallied back to take second sets. Bekkers held strong in the third, but fell 6-3 as De Weerdt fought off match points in a super tiebreak against Damon Gooch. The match tiebreak fell in favor of Gooch, 11-9.
Charlotte 5, The Citadel 2
CHARLOTTE, N.C. ? The Citadel tennis team (7-6) was defeated by the Charlotte 49ers, 5-2, on Tuesday afternoon at the Phillips Tennis Complex in Charlotte, N.C.
The Bulldogs started off strong winning the doubles point as Alberto Diaz and Martin King paired up to swing past Charlotte’s Brad Clinard and Chris Huynh, 8-6. Yufo Sutantio and Michael Kociecki rallied in a tiebreaker to defeat the 49ers’ Mortiz Bernhoerster and Jeff Archer, 9-7.
Derek Dickey and Frederic Petrilli fell, 8-2, to Charlotte’s Michael Anders and Mirza Beciragic.
Diaz continued to remain a threat as he was the lone Citadel player to win in singles. The 49ers’ Ricky Cuellar forced the match into three sets and Diaz pulled out the 7-6, 3-6, 6-2 victory.
Sutantio fell to Charlotte’s Bernhoerster, 6-4, 4-2 and Kociecki suffered a tough loss to the 49ers’ Anders, 6-4, 3-6, 6-2. King had a close matchup with Charlotte’s Anthony Davison but dropped, 7-5, 6-4. Dickey was defeated by the 49ers’ C. Martin-Lecamp, 6-3, 6-0 and Charlotte’s Clinard dominated his match against Frank Larkin, 6-4, 6-0.
It is the battle of the Bulldogs as The Citadel travels to Wingate, N.C. to battle against the Wingate Bulldogs on Wednesday, March 25 at 1 p.m.