Appalachian State 6, Gardner-Webb 1
BOONE, N.C. - Appalachian State University men’s tennis snapped a three-match losing streak and got back on the winning track Thursday afternoon, as the Mountaineers handily defeated Gardner-Webb 6-1 at the ASU Tennis Courts. With the win, the Black and Gold improve to 12-9 on the season while the Runnin’ Bulldogs fall to 9-16.
The Mountaineers started the match on a strong note, earning wins in two of three doubles matches.
The duo of Trent Constance and Peter Jacobs downed Andrew Veeder and Carlos Quijano 8-1 at the number two spot, while Philip Kloc and Alain Humblet clinched the doubles point for Appalachian, earning an 8-3 win at the number three position. Bobby Lake and Lee Floyd posted a solid effort, but came up just short at the number one spot, falling 8-3.
ASU continued its dominant play in singles, winning five of six matches. Constance remained spotless on the afternoon, winning at the two spot 6-3, 6-4, while Floyd was also victorious, defeating Quijano in two sets as well, 6-3, 6-4. Kloc clinched the match for the Apps, beating Jamie Lawlor in three tough sets, winning 7-5, 2-6, 6-3.
At the number three spot, Jacobs notched a solid win, as he pushed his opponentt to three sets after dropping the first, winning 4-6, 6-3, 6-1, while freshman Alain Humblet downed Ryan Bernthal 6-2, 6-2 at the number six spot.
In the final match of the afternoon, Lake faced stiff competition in Evgeny Slesarev and was not able to rally a comeback, as he fell just short in three sets.
The Black and Gold play their final home match of the 2009 season, Saturday April 11 against Chattanooga at the ASU Tennis Courts. The match is set for 1 p.m. and will be the final home match for seniors Bobby Lake and Lee Floyd.
Elon 4, East Carolina 1
GREENVILLE, N.C. - The Elon Phoenix, ranked 66th nationally in the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Poll, earned its 14th victory in its last 15 matches with a travel schedule-shortened 4-1 non-conference victory over the East Carolina Pirates on Thursday afternoon at the ECU Tennis Complex. The loss dropped the Pirates' spring record to 17-3, while the Phoenix improved to 17-5.
Elon rallied to capture the doubles point and followed with singles wins at the two, three and four positions to secure the triumph.
After Bryan Oakley and Stephen Whitwell turned in an 8-4 win over Alberto Rojas and Cody Stauffer MacDowell in a number three matchup to open pairs play, the Phoenix bounced back with victories in both the number one and two positions to garner the first point.
Carlin Murray and Oscar Podlewski earned an 8-6 decision over Aleksey Kochetov and Henrik Skalmerud at number two before 32nd-ranked Damon Gooch and Philip Nemec outlasted Denis Ermilov and Jaroslav Horvath 9-8 to give Elon a 1-0 lead.
Rojas started singles play with a 6-0, 6-1 victory over Ermilov at the number four slot and Podlewski added a 6-4, 6-4 triumph against Horvath at number two to push the Phoenix' edge to 3-0.
Kochetov followed by pushing his spring singles record to 17-2 and producing East Carolina's only tally of the afternoon by dismissing Stauffer MacDowell 7-5, 6-2 in a number five meeting before Nemec turned in the match-clincher with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 defeat of Skalmerud at number three.
The singles matches at numbers one and six were unfinished.
Elon's final two regular season matches will be played at home at the Jimmy Powell Tennis Center. The first contest will be held on Apr. 15 when the Phoenix plays host to UNC Greensboro in a 2 p.m. contest.
Binghamton 5, College of Charleston 2
MT. PLEASANT, S.C. - The College of Charleston men's tennis team dropped a 5-2 decision to Binghamton on Thursday in the team's final match of the 2009 season at the CofC Tennis Center at Patriots Point.
With the loss, Charleston falls to 7-13 on the year, while Binghamton improves to 12-6 with the win. The Cougars return to action on Tuesday, April 14th when they travel to The Citadel beginning at 1 p.m.
The Cougars got off to a good start in doubles action, as they took two of the three matches contested to earn a team point.
Charleston was led in the number one spot by the team of Mickael Trintignac and Mickael Boyer who earned a 9-7 decision over Sven Vloedgraven and Gilbert Wong. Thomas Delme and Steven Myers then won the team point for Charleston with an 8-6 win at number two doubles over Alexandre Haggai an Arnav Jain.
From there, Binghamton took control of the match in singles, winning five of the six matches played. The lone victor on the day for Charleston was Trintignac, who was a 6-4, 7-6 winner over Jain at number two singles. With the victories in doubles and singles, Trintignac finishes the year undefeated in both events at home.