Elon 4, North Florida 3
ELON, N.C. - In its first match of 2011 at The Jimmy Powell Tennis Center, the Elon men's tennis team fought out a 4-3 decision against visiting North Florida under sunny skies on Sunday afternoon. The 67th-ranked Phoenix (3-1) earned the doubles point for the third time this year and won singles matches at the four, five and six positions to take the victory. North Florida evened its record to 2-2 on the season.
"This was a good win over a strong North Florida team," commented Elon head coach Michael Leonard. "The doubles point was crucial and watching our number one doubles team step up their game and compete like that gave us the point."
After rain forced Elon to cancel its home opener on Saturday, sunny skies and temperatures in the mid-50s made for a perfect day of tennis in North Carolina. The Phoenix and Ospreys opened the afternoon with competitive doubles matches. UNF's Daniel Sotomarino and Hleb Maslau were first off the courts, defeating Cody Stauffer-MacDowell and Eric Turner, 8-3, at number two. Elon answered at the third spot when Alberto Rojas and Cameron Silverman put up an 8-4 victory against Leonardo Nahar and Beauregard Treyz.
At number one doubles, fans got their money's worth. Elon's Chase Helpingstine and Philip Nemec improved to 2-1 on the year and clinched the point for the Phoenix. Trailing 6-1, Helpingstine and Nemec rebounded and battled out a 9-8 (8) win over Moritz Buerchner and Pedro Davisson to give Elon the early lead.
Elon pushed its advantage to 2-0 when Silverman quickly handled Treyz at number four. The freshman lost only one game in his 6-1, 6-0 victory. North Florida evened the score with wins at number one and three. Buerchner topped Nemec, 6-2, 6-3, at the top singles position. Maslau followed with a 6-3, 6-3 defeat of Helpingstine on court three.
Stauffer-MacDowell put Elon back ahead, pulling out a 7-5 win in the opening set against Anton Rabinov and then cruising to victory with a 6-0 match-clinching set. Rojas secured the Phoenix win with a straight-set performance against Nahar, 6-4, 6-2. With the outcome of the match already determined, court number two saw some of the most competitive tennis of the day. After Turner won the first set 6-2, Sotomarino forced a deciding third set by posting a 6-2 score in the second set. In a tiebreaker, Sotomarino came away with the 2-6, 6-2, 7-6 (4) victory.
Elon will have a short break before traveling to Virginia Commonwealth on Saturday, Feb. 19. The match is slated to begin at 2 p.m.
Georgia Southern 7, Kennesaw State 0
MARIETTA, Ga. - The Georgia Southern Men's Tennis team (2-1) bounced back with a dominating 7-0 win over Kennesaw State (2-1) at the Laurel Park Tennis Center on Sunday, February 6th. The Eagles took control of the match from the onset to deliver the Owls their first loss of the season, taking the doubles point and then winning in similar fashion in singles.
"I am very proud of the way the guys responded today after a tough, hard-fought loss yesterday and we had great team energy right from the start," said Eagles first-year Head Coach Nick Zieziula. "We did a better job rolling our momentum from the doubles into the singles and we played with the lead very well today on every single one of the courts."
Sophomores Juan Manuel Melian Puigventos and Matthijs Verdam topped the Owls' number-one pair Simon Janik and Elliot Kahler 8-5. The number-two doubles team of freshman Marco Osorio and junior Alain Garrido went to 3-0 on the season with the defeat of Kennesaw State's Gianni Kubin and Gokalp Ozdemir 8-6.
Puigventos came back for the No. 1 singles match against Janik to give the Owl his first loss of the season in a 6-2, 6-1 decision. Garrido, at number-two singles, and Verdam, at the three seed, won in straight sets as well. Garrido won 6-2, 6-0 over Kennesaw State's Kubin and Verdam posted a 6-0, 6-2 victory over Ozdemir.
Getting his second win of the year, Osorio took the 6-4, 6-3 win over Kahler at the number-four singles and Thoams Bekkers posted a 7-5, 6-1 victory over the Owls' Michawel Langel at number-six singles. Edio Castanhel rallied after a 1-6 loss in the first set to win the second set 6-3. The junior won the super tiebreaker 10-7.
The Eagles travel to Stetson for a 10 a.m. match on Saturday, February 12th, before returning home to play host to Hampton at 2 p.m. Sunday, February 13th.
Chattanooga 6, North Alabama 1
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's tennis team recorded its first win of the season with a 6-1 victory over North Alabama at the Hixson Racquet Club today. The Mocs improve to 1-5 on the year while the Lions dropped to 0-1 overall.
Chattanooga started the match by taking two out of three doubles matches to go up 1-0. Freshman Trent Cobb and sophomore William Disterdick scored an 8-7 win at No. 1. They won the tiebreak over Merlin Witt and Mirko Sommerfield 7-4.
Sophomores Roberto Vieira and Chris Smith also scored an 8-5 win at No. 2. The Mocs duo is now 4-1 on the season.
Chattanooga went on two win five of the six singles matches, beginning with Disterdick's 6-0, 6-4 vicotry at No. 5. Sophomore Jackson Tresnan followed that up with a 6-1, 6-0 win at No. 3. The Mocs secured the match when senior Rick van de Bovenkamp posted a 6-2, 6-2 win at No. 4.
Freshman Orlando Lourenco posted his first collegiate win, a 6-4, 7-6 (7-3) victory over T.J. Drake at No. 6. Smith also won his singles match at No. 2, 6-2, 5-7, 7-6 (7-3).
The Mocs are back in action on Friday, Feb. 11, when they host Murray State. Match time is set for 5:00 p.m. (E.S.T.) at the Hixson Racquet Club.
UNCG 6, USC Upstate 1
SPARTANBURG, S.C. - UNCG swept through the six singles matches after dropping a hotly contested doubles point, rallying past No. 61 USC Upstate on Sunday, 6-1.
UNCG improved to 3-0 on the season, while USC Upstate fell to 0-6.
The home Spartans got tough wins at Nos. 1 and 3 doubles to snag the doubles point. Matias Di Pasquale and Marco Linconir downed UNCG's Orcun Seyrek and Ahmet Sarioglu at No. 1, 9-7. Gonzalo Blanco and Andres Sanchez defeated Yaroslav Litus and Zack Reece at No. 3 by the same score.
Timion Meijs and Chanon Varapongsittikul cruised past Gianluca Paino and Ignacio Velez at No. 2, 8-1.
Down 1-0, UNCG turned things around in singles play, winning each match to storm back for the win.
Seyrek topped Blanco in three sets at No. 1, winning the first set 6-1 before dropping the second, 3-6. Seyrek took a 6-1 win in set three for the win.
Meijs took a 6-3, 6-2 win over Di Pasquale at No. 2, while Litus dropped Paino at No. 3, 6-2, 6-1. Varapongsittikul defeated Linconir at No. 4, 7-5, 6-3, and Ahmet Sarioglu thrashed Velez at No. 5, 6-0, 6-1. Zack Reece rallied for a three-set win at No. 6, dropping the first set 6-4 before winning the next two by the same score.
Varapongsittikul, Sarioglu and Reece remained undefeated in dual play, with the former two going to 3-0 and Reece improving to 2-0.
UNCG returns to action on Friday at Old Dominion. That match is set for 6 p.m.
Samford 7, Alabama-Huntsville 0
Georgia State 5, Samford 2
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. --- On the opening weekend of dual-match play, the Samford University men's tennis team tallied a 1-1 record in contests against the Alabama-Huntsville Chargers and the Georgia State Panthers. The Bulldogs breezed past the Chargers on Saturday 7-0, but then dropped a 5-2 decision at Georgia State (5-2) on Sunday.
At home at the Samford Tennis Center, Samford (1-1) cruised to a season-opening 7-0 victory against Alabama-Huntsville (0-1) on Saturday.
The Bulldogs swept the doubles point and then received straight-set triumphs from Carson Kadi, Zac Dunkle, Oliver Reynolds, Carl Abalos, Alexander Sajonz and Fernando Costa.
In Sunday's road match at Georgia State, Samford held on to win the doubles point with a thrilling 9-8(5) victory from Dunkle and Sajonz on court No. 2. Earlier, the Bulldogs received their first point in doubles play with an 8-6 win from the combination of Reynolds and Abalos on court No. 1.
Georgia State, playing at home at the Chattahoochee Plantation Center, rallied back from its early 1-0 deficit to win five of the six singles matches. With their resurgent play in the singles competition, the Panthers tallied Sunday's 5-2 non-conference victory.
Samford's lone win in singles play was a 6-3, 6-0 triumph from Abalos on court No. 4. With the victory, Abalos improved his singles record to 2-0 in the spring.
The Samford University men's tennis team will next be in action Wednesday at 2 p.m. (CST) as the Bulldogs return home to the Samford Tennis Center for an in-state matchup against the Jacksonville State Gamecocks.