Appalachian State 6, Samford 1
BOONE, N.C. - Appalachian State University men's tennis pushed its winning streak to three matches in a row, as the Mountaineers downed Southern Conference foe Samford 6-1 Sunday afternoon. With the victory, ASU improves to 11-8 on the season and 3-5 in league play, while the Bulldogs drop to 11-10 on the season and 2-6 in SoCon action.
The impressive performance began in doubles play as the Black and Gold cruised to wins in all three matches.
The team of Trent Constance and Peter Jacobs had no trouble with Carson Kadi and Michael Browder at the number one spot, earning a resounding 8-1 win at the number one spot.
The team of Philip Kloc and Alain Humblet followed suit, clinching the doubles point for the Apps, grabbing a stout 8-2 win at the two position.
Britton Webb and Andre McKinnon kept the Black and Gold spotless in doubles play, winning 8-7 (7-2 in the tiebreaker) over Carl Abalos and Scott Foster.
After falling behind early 4-0 in the first set, Kloc rebounded and went on to win 7-5, 6-1 at the number four slot in singles play, to put Appalachian up 2-0.
Suffering ASU's lone loss of the day, Jacobs posted a valiant effort, but lost in two sets at the one position to Kadi.
Freshman Ezekiel Sansing was strong on the afternoon as well at the six spot, beating Adam Witcher 6-4, 6-3 while Humblet secured the match victory for Appalachian, downing Zac Dunkle 6-4, 6-4.
Constance and McKinnon were victorious against the Bulldogs as well, as Constance won in two sets at the three slot over Oliver Reynolds and McKinnon notched a three set victory at the five position.
College of Charleston 6, UNC Greensboro 1
MT. PLEASANT, S.C. - The College of Charleston (15-3, 9-0) men's tennis team has positioned itself to play for the regular season Southern Conference title following it's impressive 6-1 victory over previously undefeated UNC Greensboro (14-4, 8-1) on Sunday, April 11 at the CofC Tennis Center in Mt. Pleasant, S.C. With the win, CofC and Furman are the only remaining unbeatens in the league. They will face each other on Thursday, April 15 in Furman to determine the regular season champion.
The Cougars jumped ahead early as they not only earned the doubles point, they did so with a sweep. Sophomore John Harden and freshman Kyle Parker were first off the court with an 8-4 victory while the pairing of junior Lukas Koncilia and sophomore Tom Delme and sophomore Mickael Trintignac and junior Mickael Boyer each earned 8-5 victories.
In singles action, Harden quickly extended the College of Charleston's lead to 2-0 with a 6-3, 6-1 decision over William John at No. 6 while Boyer posted a 6-2, 6-3 win against Yaroslav Litus at the fourth position. Leading 3-0, Delme clinched the match for the Cougars with a 2-6, 6-0, 6-2 decision over Jacob Wright at the No. 3 position.
Trintignac then stretched the lead to 5-0 with his come-from-behind victory over Arsel Kumdereli at No. 2. The native of Le Cannet, France trailed 4-1 in the first set before rallying for 7-6 victory. He then took his match with a 6-3 win in the second set. At the No. 1 position, Koncilia became the first opponent to defeat the Spartans' Orcun Seyrek in 15 matches as he posted a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 decision over the reigning Southern Conference Player of the Year.
The lone loss for the Cougars came at the hands of Timion Meijs, who defeated Kyle Parker at the fifth spot in a hard fought match. Parker took the first set by a 7-5 score before dropping a 7-6 second set decision off of a 10-point tie breaker. Meijs then barely prevailed, 12-10, to give UNC Greensboro it's lone point of the match.
Elon 6, Wofford 1
SPARTANBURG, S.C. - The Elon Phoenix put together a dominating performance on Sunday afternoon, defeating the host Wofford Terriers, 6-1, in Southern Conference men's tennis action from the Reeves Tennis Center. With the win, Elon (6-13, 5-4) remained in the hunt one of the four seeds in the upcoming league tournament. Wofford fell to 7-11 on the season and 3-5 in conference action.
Elon set the tone very early in the match as Chase Helpingstine and Alberto Rojas earned the team's quickest doubles victory of the season, finishing off Alan Donald and Tinus Van Wyk, 8-1, in a mere 27 minutes on court one. Thomas Darling and Eric Turner weren't far behind, clinching the Phoenix point with an 8-2 result against Tom Wood and Drew Superstein at number three.
The Phoenix finished the doubles sweep with a win at number two. Playing a tiebreak with the match tied at seven, an acrobatic between-the-legs shot by Phil Nemec helped Elon finish off the final point of the match for an 8-7 (2) win over Stuart Robertson and Paul Bartholomy. The tandem has now won 11 straight duals and is an undefeated 9-0 against SoCon opponents.
Helpingstine was in a zone all afternoon, making quick work of Robertson in singles. The junior needed just 57 minutes to earn a 6-0, 6-2 win on court two and give the Phoenix a 2-0 advantage. Wofford got what turned out to be its only point of the contest when Michael Schecter defeated Cody Stauffer-MacDowell, 6-4, 6-2, at number five.
Nemec was impressive at the top singles spot for the Phoenix, putting Elon just one match away from a win with a 6-3, 6-3 defeat of Van Wyk. On court five, Rojas quickly found himself down 5-0 to Bartholomy in the opening set. Rojas motioned senior teammate Clark Howell to his court for some much-needed motivation. Point by point, game by game, Rojas dug into the deficit, eventually turning it into a 7-6 (1) win. The junior lost only three games in the match after getting down 5-0, clinching the Elon victory with a 7-6 (1), 6-2 result.
Turner picked up a 6-2, 6-3 decision on court three against Donald, and Darling finished the match on a high note for the Phoenix, rolling by Wood, 6-0, 6-1, at number six. Darling has won five consecutive matches.
Charlotte 4, Davidson 3
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - The Davidson men¹s tennis team played its third straight close match of the week, but fell short, 4-3, to cross-county rival Charlotte on Sunday afternoon after dropping a 4-3 decision to Samford on Saturday for Senior Day in Southern Conference action.
With the two defeats, the Wildcats fell to 10-9 overall. Charlotte moved to 4-15, while the Bulldogs ran their record to 11-10 and 3-6 in the league.
It was a tough week for Davidson as all three of its matches were played down to the wire and had the OCats coming out on the wrong end of 4-3 decisions to Elon, Samford and Charlotte.
Sunday saw the 'Cats open play vs. the 49ers with a 2-1 win in doubles play to capture the first point of the match.
Mixing the doubles lineup a bit, Davidson was able to take wins at No. 2 and 3 to earn the point. The duo of Chris Mark and Sam
Burns moved up a spot to the second position and won a 9-7 decision for their ninth victory.
Then the new pair of Joe Schafer and Carter Braxton sealed up the point with an 8-5 win at No. 3 over Anthony Davison and Chris Martin-Lecamp.
The singles action was tight all the way down to the final clinching match for the 49ers. Four of the matches went three sets, including Davison's clinching win for Charlotte at No. 4 over Burns, 2-6, 6-1, 7-5.
Davidson did take two of the four three-setters, with Schafer (6-7, 6-2, 6-3) and Walker Lyons (7-5, 4-6, 7-5) scoring two of the
OCats three total points. Lyons got back on the winning track after dropping six of his last seven matches. He evened his singles mark to 8-8 on the season, while Schafer became the fourth Wildcat to clip the double-digit mark this season in singles wins with his 10th.
Burns earned his 12th win of the season, ninth at the No. 6 spot.
Davidson next heads to Winthrop for another non-conference match on Apr. 13 at 3 p.m.