Furman 7, Chattanooga 0
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's tennis team dropped a tough 7-0 match to Furman today. The Mocs fought hard and pushed a pair of singles matches to three sets before falling to the visiting Paladins.
Weather forced the contest from the UTC Tennis Courts to the indoor surfaces at nearby Manker Patten Tennis Club. The opening doubles competition was a lively battle from the beginning. Furman took the first two matches to secure the point with wins at No. 2 and 3. However, Freshmen Roberto Vieira and Ryan Pool helped UTC avoid the sweep with an 8-6 win over Sawyer Duncan and Chris Motes at No. 1.
Furman swept all of the singles matches, but two Mocs would not go down without a fight. Freshman Chris Smith dropped his first set 6-1 to Carl Lundberg, but returned the favor with a 6-1 win in the second set. They went back and forth in the third before Lundberg pulled out a 6-4 win.
Vieira and Duncan engaged in an epic battle that started with a 7-6 first-set win for Vieira. He won the tiebreaker 8-6 to take the opener. Duncan fought back with a 6-2 win in the second. With the match already decided the two played a super-tiebreaker to decide the outcome. Trailing 7-4, Vieira battled back and had a match point at 8-7. He was unable to put the game away and Duncan eventually won 11-9.
With the loss, UTC falls to 2-12 on the season and 0-5 in SoCon action. Furman improved to 8-9 overall and remains undefeated in SoCon action at 5-0.
Georgia Southern 4, Appalachian State 3
BOONE, N.C. - With both teams winning three singles matches each, the doubles point proved to be the deciding difference in a Southern Conference match Saturday afternoon. Georgia Southern took two of three doubles decisions to top the Appalachian State Mountaineers, 4-3, as Justin Flynn clinched the match in singles play. The win moved the Eagles to 5-12 this season and 1-5 in league play, while the Mountaineers fell to 7-7, 0-4.
Claiming only its second conference doubles point of the season, Georgia Southern opened play taking the early lead, 1-0. Edio Castanhel and Gregory Bekkers paired up at the three seed to down Andrew McKinnon and Ezekiel Sansing, 8-2, for the first win. A Mountaineer win at the top seed left the doubles point at No. 2 where Juan Manuel Melian Puigventos and Mattijs Verdam teamed up. The Eagle tandem battled for an 8-6 win over Alain Humblet and Phillip Kloc to hand GS the 1-0 match lead.
Melian Puigventos pushed Georgia Southern out to a 2-0 advantage winning first in singles play. The freshman handled Trent Constance, 7-6(3), 6-0, before ASU recorded its first win at No. 3. Humblet survived a three-set battle over Verdam, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 to make the score 2-1. But another singles win at the top seed knotted the score at 2-all after Peter Jacobs outlasted senior Jayraj Jadeja, 7-6 (11), 6-4.
The conference foes traded points at Nos. 5 and 4, leaving the match decision at the final court. McKinnon gave ASU its first and last lead of the match with a straight-set win at No. 5, but Alain Garrido pulled the match even at 3-all with a three-set win at No. 4. Garrido dropped the first set, 6-1, to Kloc but responded in the second and third with 6-2, 6-3 set wins for the match.
With the match tied at 3-3, all eyes turned to court six where Flynn and Sansing were facing off. Flynn bypassed Sansing in straight-sets, 6-4, 7-5, to clinch the conference win for the Eagles, 4-3.
College of Charleston 5, Davidson 2
DAVIDSON, N.C. - Sophomore Calum Gee won his 10th straight singles match, but Davidson came up short in its bid to push its winning streak to six, falling to visiting College of Charleston, 5-2, on Sunday afternoon at the Knobloch Indoor Tennis Center.
Davidson (9-4, 3-2 SoCon) was on its longest win streak since the 1999 squad rattled off five straight. Currently on an eight-match homestand, the 'Cats are now 5-2. College of Charleston (12-3, 6-0 SoCon) entered the match winners of five of its last six matches as the Cougars remained perfect in league play.
In a match that featured two teams that have been hot lately, the Cougars were able to halt the Wildcats' winning ways by sweeping the doubles spots and taking four of the six singles matches for the win.
A day after sweeping the three doubles matches to start things off against Georgia Southern, the Wildcats were not able to duplicate their success against the Cougars. The doubles duos of Eric Noble and Joe Schafer, and Gee and Walker Lyons each saw their five-match win streaks come to an end after dropping 8-3 and 8-4 decisions at the No. 1 and 2 positions.
Freshman Chris Mark and senior Sam Burns nearly pulled out their match, but fell in the end by the count of 8-7.
Gee along with Burns were the lone 'Cats to score singles wins as the duo continued their winning ways as of late. Gee moved to 10-1 on the season, 5-0 in league matches, with a 6-7, 7-5, 12-10 win over Kyle Parker at No. 5. The sophomore is 7-1 at the No. 5 singles spot and with his 10th win today, has already matched his whole win total from last year.
Burns kept pace with Gee by remaining perfect in league play at 5-0, while moving his win streak to six in a row after a 3-6, 7-5, 10-7 win at the No. 6 position over John Harden. Burns is 9-1 on the season and has helped the Wildcats to a 52-21 dual team singles record this year.