Chattanooga 4, Davidson 3
DAVIDSON, N.C. - The doubles point proved to be the difference as the Wildcats fell one point short in their first Southern Conference tennis match of the year, falling to Chattanooga 4-3 on Sunday afternoon in the Knobloch Tennis Center.
Davidson, starting a six-match homestand, fell to 3-9 on the year and started league play at 0-1. It also saw its three-match win streak in the all-time series come to an end as the Wildcats fell to 9-10 since 1988 vs. the Mocs.
UTC won its fourth straight to improve to 5-6 overall and 1-0 in SoCon play.
Both teams split two of the three doubles spots, with each team picking up 8-2 wins to bring it down to the No. 1 spot. The Wildcats No. 2 team of Ethan Kallick and Walker Lyons earned their third doubles win together.
Then at No. 1, Calum Gee and Joe Schafer battled Roberto Vieira and Chris Smith back-and-forth until the Mocs' No. 1 team pulled through with an 8-6 win to give Chattanooga an early 1-0 lead.
Singles play was much the same, with all six matches being fairly close, before UTC pulled out the math with wins at No. 1, 3, and 4.
Gee and Schafer both got the 'Cats on the board when they scored straight set wins at No. 5 and 2 positions, respectively. Gee won his second straight singles match over the weekend to even his record at 4-4 with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over William Disterdick.
Schafer also evened his singles mark at 6-6 when he scored a 6-4, 6-2 win at No. 2, his first win of the season at that position.
The Wildcats final point came from sophomore Kevin Moore, who netted his first career SoCon win with a 6-0, 7-5 win at No. 6. The sophomore pushed his singles mark on the year to 5-5.
Despite dropping their singles matches, Chris Mark's, Arie Hefter's and Lyons' three matches were all close. Mark, who moved up to the No. 1 spot, fell 6-4, 6-4 to Vieira.
Hefter forced extra games in each of his two sets before falling 7-5, 7-5 to Trent Cobb, and Lyons came close to forcing a third set when he dropped a 6-4, 7-6 decision to Jackson Tresnan at No. 4.
Davidson continues its six-match homestand with a 1 p.m. match against SoCon-foe Elon on Mar. 12.
Appalachian State 4, Jacksonville 3
JACKSONVILLE, FLA. - Appalachian State University men's tennis notched a solid win over Jacksonville University Sunday morning as the Apps defeated the Dolphins 4-3. With the win, ASU improves to 4-3 on the season while JU drops to 2-6.
The biggest play for Appalachian came in doubles, when the team earned the ever important doubles point by winning 2-of-3 matches.
The duo of Alain Humblet and Philip Kloc handily defeated their competition at the number one spot, winning 8-3 over Pitt Von Oertzen and Logan Shalmi. The team of Alex Markov and Sebastien King were also victorious at the number two spot, winning 8-4. At the number three spot Andrew McKinnon and Ezekiel Sansing also dropped their match 8-0.
In singles play, Jacksonville grabbed two quick points by winning at the No. 1 and 2 spots. Markov won the first set 6-1 against Jose Fantova, but the Bulgarian native couldn't pull out the win and lost the next two sets both by a score of 7-6. Humblet was defeated in two straight sets by Fernando Bano Lopez, 6-3, 6-4.
At the number three spot, Kloc snatched ASU's second point of the day by breezing past Larry Condez, 6-1, 6-2.
King fell at the No. 4 position to Shalmi (6-3, 7-6), giving the Dolphins its third and final point of the match.
McKinnon tied up the competition at three points each by making short work of Andrew Lerner 6-1, 6-4.
Freshman Matt Saltsgaver pulled out a big victory for the Black and Gold, as he came back from losing the first set to defeat Larry Lvosky, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Appalachian returns to action Monday with a match against Mercer at 10 a.m. in Jacksonville, Fla.
Loyola Marymount 5, College of Charleston 2
LOS ANGELES, Calif. - College of Charleston men's tennis fell to the Loyola Marymount Lions, 5-2, on Saturday in the first of the team's two matches in Los Angeles over spring break.
The Cougars (3-3) earned the doubles point with wins at the No.1 and No. 3 spots. The duo of senior Lukas Koncilia and sophomore Kyle Parker picked up their third straight victory as the top seed with an 8-4 win over Daniel Simko and Nicholas Bjerke. Junior Tom Delme and sophomore Stephen Hardy earned an 8-3 win at the No. 3 spot.
Loyola Marymount (5-7) rallied in singles competition, winning five of the six matches. CofC's Parker, who faced Simko for the second time today, returned from dropping his first set 6-0 at the No. 4 spot, to win the next two sets 6-4, 6-4 for the Cougars' only singles victory. The victory was Parker's third on the season, including his second at the No. 4 spot.
College of Charleston returns to action on Sunday at the LMU Tennis Center when the team takes on Gonzaga in a neutral site match at 4:30 pm EST. The Bulldogs are 2-7 on the season.