Furman 7, Samford 0
GREENVILLE, S.C. ? The Furman men’s tennis team won its second straight regular-season Southern Conference title, securing an undefeated league record with a 7-0 victory over Samford on Friday afternoon at Mickel Tennis Center. The Paladins (19-7, 10-0) won their 22nd consecutive conference match, dating back to the 2007 season. Samford, the newest member of the SoCon, dropped to 6-14-1 overall and 3-5-1 in the league.
The Paladins will enter the upcoming SoCon Tournament as the top seed. Furman will challenge the winner of the #8 Seed vs. #9 Seed match on Friday, April 24 at 9 a.m. at the Jimmy Powell Tennis Center on the campus of Elon University.
Furman won all three doubles matches to take the first point of the match. Seniors Andy Juc and Bo Ladyman won their final home doubles match, defeating Kelwin DeWet and Brian Dushock, 8-2, for the duo’s 12th win of the season. At the number three position, Jordan Walters and Andrei Chvetsov remained unbeaten in league action with an 8-5 victory over Richard Walsh and Carson Kadi. Chris Motes and Chris Rhyne scored an 8-7 win against Oliver Reynolds and Carl Abalos.
In singles play, sophomore Sawyer Duncan won his 15th straight match to improve to 10-0 in the SoCon. Duncan posted a 6-2, 6-2 win over Abalos. All three seniors ? Juc, Ladyman and Daniel Knause ? picked up straight-set wins in their final matches at Mickel. At position four, Motes knocked off Dushock, 6-2, 7-6, and Walters closed the regular season with a 4-6, 6-1, 1-0 (10-4) defeat of Reynolds at number five.
UNC Greensboro 5, The Citadel 2
GREENSBORO, N.C. ? Needing to win to have a chance for the No. 3 seed in next week’s Southern Conference Tournament, UNC Greensboro did its part on Friday afternoon, defeating The Citadel, 5-2.
UNCG will await the outcome of Saturday’s match between Wofford and Samford to know whether it will be the No. 3 seed. A Wofford win would give the Terriers the No. 3 seed by virtue of tiebreaker. A Samford win and the Spartans will be the No. 3 seed next week.
Friday against The Citadel, UNCG (14-7, 7-3) won two of three doubles matches ? all of which were tight ? to just up out to a 1-0 lead. Then, singles wins by Orcun Seyrek, Andrey Bubnov, William John and Taylor Befus gave UNCG its fourth win in the last five outings.
Seyrek’s win over Yufo Suntantio at No. 1 singles, 6-3 and 6-1, made him 24-4 overall on the year, 19-2 on the spring. Bubnov, a senior from Belgorod, Russia playing in his final home match, made easy work of Michael Kociecki at No. 2 singles, 6-1 and 6-0. Bubnov is now 15-10 on the year, including 9-1 in league play.
The Bulldogs dropped to 8-13, 1-8 in the league on the season. They still have to visit Elon on Saturday to close out the regular season.
Charlotte 5, Davidson 2
DAVIDSON, N.C. ? Wrapping up their final regular season match, the Davidson men’s tennis team fell to its cross-county rival Charlotte, 5-2, on Friday afternoon at Covington Tennis Courts.
The Wildcats concluded their season at 6-16, while Charlotte improved to 9-10. The 49ers took four of the six singles matches to seal the win after taking the doubles point to open the match.
Eric Noble and Tareq Alani gave the Wildcats an 8-6 win at the No. 3 doubles position, but Charlotte took the other two positions by the scores of 8-5 and 8-4.
Scoring the ?Cats two points on the afternoon was No. 2 Walker Lyons and No. 3 Scott Myers. Lyons’ came back from a 6-4 defeat in the first set to earn 6-3 and 7-5 victories in the next two sets for his ninth win of the season.
Myers, in his final home match of his career, picked up a 7-6, 6-3 win over Anthony Davison for his team-leading 11th win of the season. The senior is 11-10 on the year and 4-6 in league matches, tied for tops on the team.
Also playing his final home match was Brandon Byrd, who teamed with Carter Braxton at the No. 2 doubles spot.
Davidson now gears itself up for the Southern Conference Tournament, Apr. 23-26 in Elon, N.C.