Georgia Southern 4, Chattanooga 3
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - The Chattanooga men’s tennis team dropped a 4-3 heart breaker to Georgia Southern in the Southern Conference season finale for both teams.
After falling behind 3-0, the Mocs rallied to win the next two matches before the Eagles’ Edio Castanhel won his No. 6 match to clinch the win.
The Eagles swept the doubles point, but not without some effort on the part of the Mocs. Gregory Bekkers and Philip Prins won handily over van de Bovenkamp and Gordon Rudell at No. 3 by an 8-2 margin. At No. 2, the Mocs duo Alex Butnarcuic and Dakota Pate battled it out with Justin Flynn and Jayraj Jadeja but the Eagles would prevail to claim the match 9-7. GSU’s Joris De Weerdt and Matthew Sands outlasted the Mocs seniors Peter Sauska and Pavel Vostrikov 8-7(7) in a two-hour duel on Senior Day.
Georgia Southern quickly gained a 3-0 advantage immediately winning a pair of singles matches. Flynn blanked UTC’s Sam Parfitt 6-0, 6-0 at the No. 5 spot and Jadeja posted a 6-3, 6-1 win over Butnarcuic at No. 3.
Vostrikov, however, would put the Mocs on the board with a 7-5, 7-5 win at the No. 2 spot over Bekkers and Sauska followed that up with a 6-4, 6-4 win at No. 1 over De Weerdt to cut the Eagles’ lead to 3-2.
Castanhel outlasted UTC’s van de Bovenkamp at No. 6 and got the victory for the Eagles with a 7-6, 6-4 win. Chattanooga’s Pate fell behind early at No. 4, dropping the first set 7-6(4) to Alain Garrido but would mount a comeback to claim the next two sets 6-4, 6-0.
The Mocs fall to 2-17 on the year and 0-10 in league play and will be the 11 seed this week at the Southern Conference championships in Elon, N.C. The Eagles improve to 9-8-1 overall and 5-4-1 in league play.
Elon 7, The Citadel 0
ELON, N.C. -- Seniors Kevin Beard and Damon Gooch helped power the 61st-ranked Elon Phoenix men's tennis squad past The Citadel Bulldogs 7-0 in the regular season finale for both teams from the Jimmy Powell Tennis Center Saturday afternoon. Prior to the match, both Phoenix seniors were honored on the court. Elon concluded the regular season with a 19-5 overall mark and a 9-1 SoCon record. The Citadel is 8-14, 1-9.
The Phoenix rolled through doubles play, sweeping all three matches in less than an hour. Gooch and Philip Nemec, the 34th-ranked team in the nation, grabbed an 8-1 win over Yufo Sutantio at number one in just 29 minutes.
Alberto Rojas and Cody Stauffer MacDowell teamed up for an 8-4 decision over Mike Kociecki and Josh Cook at number three to earn the point for the Phoenix.
At number two, Chase Helpingstine and Oscar Podlewski knocked off Derek Dickey and Alberto Diaz by an 8-6 score.
Elon continued to cruise in singles play. Beard won the first singles point of the day after defeating Cook 6-1, 6-0 at number six in 44 minutes. After Rojas made quick work of Dicky at number five 6-0, 6-0, Podlewski clinched the match for the Phoenix. Playing at number two, Podlewski defeated Kociecki 6-3, 6-2.
Helpingstine followed by picking up a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Martin King at number four. Nemec claimed a 6-1, 2-6, 11-9 win over Diaz at number three before Gooch, ranked 76th in the country, won 6-3, 6-2 over Sutantio at number one.
Wofford 4, Samford 3
SPARTANBURG, S.C. - The Wofford men's tennis team wrapped up the No. 3 overall seed in the upcoming Southern Conference Men's Tennis Championships as they held off Samford 4-3 on senior day Saturday afternoon at the Reeves Tennis Center. The Terriers end the regular season at 13-10 overall and 7-3 in the Southern Conference which gives them their most wins in a season since going Division I as well as the most conference wins since joining the southern Conference in 1995; the Bulldogs fall to 6-15-1 overall and 3-6-1 in the Southern Conference.
The Bulldogs came out shooting in doubles play and got out to early leads on all three courts. However, the Terriers stood their ground and battled back to take two of the three matches to secure the doubles point and a 1-0 lead heading into singles play. Scott Collins, a senior playing in his last regular season match as a Terrier, teamed with Tinus van Wyk on court No. 3 to defeat Richard Walsh and Carson Kadi 8-4. The Bulldogs took the win on court No. 2 as Oliver Reynolds and Carl Abalos took down Alan Donald and Paul Bartholomy 8-4. On court No. 1, Stuart Robertson and Danny Manlow broke serve at six all to take a 7-6 advantage. Manlow then held serve to give the duo an 8-6 win over Kelwin DeWet and Brian Dushock.
In singles play, Samford made things very difficult for the Terriers but Wofford was able to prevail by splitting the six singles matches. Manlow rolled on court No. 2 as he downed DeWet 6-2, 6-2. Bartholomy used a service break in each set to defeat Abalos on court No. 6, 6-3, 6-3. The third and final singles point came from Donald on court No. 5 where he defeated Oliver 6-4, 7-6. Robertson came very close to pulling out a victory on court No. 1 but came up short as he was battling sickness falling to Walsh, 6-2, 2-6 and 6-4. Also playing in his last singles match of the regular season for Wofford, Collins gave a valiant effort but came up on the losing end to Dushock in three sets by scores of 4-6, 6-2, and 6-2 on court No. 4.
College of Charleston 4, Charlotte 3
Charlotte, N.C. -- The College of Charleston men's tennis team closed out its regular season with a 4-3 win over Charlotte at the Phillips Tennis Complex on Saturday.
Charleston, which has won two in a row and four of its last six matches, improved to 8-13. The Niners fell to 9-11.
After Charlotte took two-of-three doubles matches to take a 1-0 lead in the match, Charleston captured four singles events to earn the win.
Lukas Koncilia beat Michael Anders 6-2, 6-4 at No. 2 singles, Tom Delme downed Charles Martin-Lecamp 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 at No. 4, Mickael Boyer earned a 7-6, 6-0 decision over Ricky Cuellar at No. 5 and Joe Nicolazzi pulled off a 7-6, 6-2 win at No. 6 over Brad Clinard..