Appalachian State 6, The Citadel 1
CHARLESTON, S.C. - Appalachian State University men's tennis handily defeated Sothern Conference foe The Citadel 6-1 on Friday afternoon in its first conference match of the season. The win is the Black and Gold's fifth straight, and it puts the Apps record to 7-3 on the season, while The Citadel drops to 1-10.
ASU easily ran through doubles action, winning all three matches.
The duo of Alain Humblet and Philip Kloc won their seventh straight doubles match, as they defeated Derek Dickey and David Orces 8-2 at the number one doubles spot. Teammates Sebastien King and Alex Markov followed suit beating James Atkinson and Josh Cook by a score of 8-3 at the number two spot. Keeping Appalachian perfect in doubles play, the team of Andrew McKinnon and Ezekiel Sansing were victorious at the number three spot, winning 8-4.
Markov had a battle at the number one singles against Orces, and he relinquished The Citadel's lone point by dropping 7-6 (7-5), 6-4.
Humblet and Kloc both coasted through their singles matches at No. 2 and 3 by making quick work of Atkinson and Cook.
King struggled in his first set against Dillion Berkabile but pulled out a 7-5, 6-0 win at the number four position. McKinnon also defeated his opponent in two sets, as he beat Dickey 6-3, 6-3.
Matt Saltsgaver capped off ASU's 6-1 pounding of the Bulldogs by defeating Elliott Sperr 6-3, 6-4.
The win over the Cadets is the Mountaineer's fifth straight dating back to the 2005 season.
NC State 6, College of Charleston 1
CHARLESTON, S.C. - College of Charleston men's tennis battled against No. 55 North Carolina State for more than four hours on Friday afternoon at Patriots Point before eventually yielding a 6-1 decision.
"It was a decent match but we weren't able to finish it off like we started," head coach Jay Bruner said. "We had a bunch of third sets and 10-point tiebreakers and just came up short."
The Wolfpack (8-4) swept the doubles matches to take an early 1-0 lead. The Cougars stayed close on their heels throughout the competition, forcing tiebreakers at the No. 1 and No. 2 spots. NCSU players Dominic Hodgson and Ivan Sanchez Gomez snapped senior Lukas Koncilia and sophomore Kyle Parker's four-match win streak as the top-seeded doubles team with a narrow 9-8 (5) victory, winning the tiebreak by just two points. Sophomore Stephen Hardy and junior Tom Delme also forced their opponents to a tiebreak situation before conceding a 9-8 (3) loss.
Junior Mickael Trintignac was the sole Charleston player to earn a win in singles competition. He defeated Dave Thomson in straight sets, 7-5, 7-5 at the No. 2 spot. Trintignac now sits at 5-2 on the season in singles.
Senior Mickael Boyer (claimed his first set against Sanchez at the No. 5 spot with a 7-5 victory before falling 6-4 in the second. In the third set, he and Sanchez traded points before Sanchez eventually pulled out a 10-7 win. Parker also forced his match to a third set by winning his first set 6-3 before falling short in the next two.
College of Charleston (4-4) returns to action 16 hours after the conclusion of Friday's contest to kick off the conference portion of its schedule with a home match against Appalachian State (6-3) at 10 a.m.