Chattanooga 7, The Citadel 0
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's tennis team posted a 7-0 sweep of The Citadel at the UTC Tennis Courts this afternoon. The Mocs even their overall record at 7-7 while improving to 2-1 in Southern Conference action.
Today's sweep is the first for UTC over a SoCon opponent in nearly four years. The last time the Mocs shut out a SoCon foe was a 7-0 home win over Georgia Southern on April 9, 2007.
Sophomores Stephen Crofford and Jackson Tresnan started the day with their second-straight doubles win. They defeated James Atkinson and Josh Cook 8-2 at No. 2. The Mocs duo improves to 4-2 in the second position.
Fellow sophomores Chris Smith and Roberto Vieira secured the doubles point with their 8-3 win over Derek Dickey and David Orces at No. 1. It was the third-straight win for Smith and Vieira as they move to 5-2 at the top spot.
Chattanooga has now won seven consecutive doubles points and is 7-1 on the year when taking at least two of the doubles matches. UTC kept the momentum going with a strong showing in singles play. The 7-0 win was the second sweep of the year for the Mocs. They also blanked Belmont on Feb. 25.
Crofford put UTC up 2-0 with his (6-1, 6-1) win over Cook at No. 6. That snapped a six-match losing streak for Crofford, giving him his first win of the spring.
Senior Rick van de Bovenkamp followed with a (6-3, 6-2) win over Dickey at No. 4. Van de Bovenkamp extends the best season record of his career to 8-7, including a 2-0 mark at No. 4.
The Mocs closed out the match with No. 2 and No. 3 ending at nearly the exact same time. Tresnan won his No. 3 contest (6-1, 6-4) over Atkinson, improving to a team-high 11-8 in singles play. Smith was next, finishing off a (6-2, 6-1) win over Dillon Berkabile at No. 2. He improves to 8-10 overall and 3-2 at No. 2.
Senior Matt Harris was penciled into the lineup for just the third time this spring. He responded by snapping an eight-match slide and getting his first win of the year, defeating Elliott Sperr (6-3, 6-2).
With the outcome decided, attention was turned to the No. 1 battle between Vieira and Orces. Vieira took the first set 6-3, but Orces forced a tiebreaker with a 6-4 win in the second. Vieira jumped out to a 6-2 lead in the 10-point decider. Orces battled back to 7-6, but Vieira finished with three straight points for his ninth win of the year. Vieira is now 5-4 at No. 1 and 2-1 in SoCon action.
The Mocs are back on the UTC Tennis Courts on Sunday, March 20, when they host Elon. First serve is set for 1:00 p.m. (E.D.T.) and live scoring will be available on GoMocs.com.
College of Charleston 6, Buffalo 1
CHARLESTON, S.C. - College of Charleston men's tennis captured its third straight victory at home with a 6-1 win over Buffalo on Friday at Patriots Point.
"This was a strong performance against a good Buffalo team that fights hard," head coach Jay Bruner said.
The Cougars (7-4, 1-0 SoCon) handed the Bulls their first loss in a three-match trip across the Palmetto State. Buffalo fell to 5-4 on the season after defeating Furman and Army in Greenville earlier this week.
CofC won two of three doubles matches to take an early 1-0 lead. Top-seeded senior Lukas Koncilia and sophomore Kyle Parker earned an 8-3 victory over Mitch Zenaty and Marcelo Mazzetto to improve to 6-4 on the year. Senior Mickael Boyer and junior Mickael Trintignac won their third straight with an 8-6 victory at the No. 3 spot.
"It was impressive to see number one doubles come up big to help us get the first point of the day," Bruner said.
The Cougars picked up five points in singles competition with wins in the second through sixth spots. Trintignac won the tiebreak in the second set for a 6-3, 7-6 (1) victory as the second seed. He currently leads the team with a 9-2 record in singles and is riding a five-match win streak.
Boyer picked up his second three-set victory of the season by rallying in the third set for a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 as the No. 5 seed. Senior Tom Delme, Parker and sophomore Stephen Hardy all earned wins in straight sets at the third, four and sixth seeds respectively.
"Parker played a great match today, getting our first singles point on the board," Bruner said. "Delme clinched the match with a great effort, while Hardy picked up his second win in a row at the sixth spot."
Due to scheduling conflicts, Saturday's match at USC Upstate has been cancelled. The Cougars return to their conference schedule on Mar. 24 with a 3 p.m. contest at Furman.