College of Charleston 5, Georgia Southern 2
STATESBORO, Ga. - College of Charleston men's tennis earned a 5-2 victory over Georgia Southern on Thursday afternoon to grab a piece of the Southern Conference regular season championship. The title gives the team the first back-to-back championship in school history.
The Cougars (15-5, 9-1 SoCon) share the conference title with Elon, who defeated Appalachian State in Boone, N.C. It is the third regular season championship for CofC, who also shared the title in 2003 with East Tennessee State.
CofC swept the doubles matches for the seventh time this season. Sophomore Billy Kenny and junior Mickael Trintignac started the Cougars off with an 8-5 win at the No. 3 spot. Sophomore Stephen Hardy and junior Tom Delme clinched the point with their sixth straight win at the No. 2 spot, an 8-4 win over Edio Castanhel and Marco Osorio.
Senior Lukas Koncilia and sophomore Kyle Parker won a marathon match at the top spot over Melian Puigventos and Matthijs Verdam. The duo took a 5-2 lead before the Eagles began to rally. The match went to a tiebreak which the Cougars eventually won 8-7 (8-6) for their 12th win on the year.
In singles, both Delme and Hardy went into their matches with perfect conference records on the line. Hardy cruised to a 6-1 victory in the first set before stumbling in the second, yielding a 6-3 decision to Sebastian Felt. Undeterred, he raced to a 6-0 win in the third to cap an undefeated season with a 12-0 record at the No. 6 spot, including a 9-0 mark against conference opponents.
Delme won his first set as the third-seed before his opponent Matthijs Verdam rebounded to claim the second and third sets. Delme finished the regular season with a 14-5 record, going 9-1 in the conference.
Senior Mickael Boyer clinched the match for the Cougars with a 6-4, 6-1 win at the No. 4 spot over Mark Paetz. CofC also picked up points at the second and fifth spots.
College of Charleston will be the No. 2 seed in the Southern Conference championship on Apr. 22-23. Elon will be the top seed since the Phoenix handed the Cougars their only loss of the season.
Elon 6, Appalachian State 1
BOONE, N.C. - The Elon men's tennis team accomplished the first part of its 2011 goal, earning a share of the Southern Conference regular season crown with a 6-1 victory over the host Appalachian State Mountaineers at the top of the mountain on Thursday afternoon. The Phoenix (17-6, 9-1) handed the Mountaineers (14-6, 6-3) their first home loss of the season, winning the doubles point and getting singles victories from all four of its seniors in the win.
The title is Elon's first since the Phoenix won the league crown outright in 2007. Elon will be the top seed in next week's Southern Conference Tournament in Chattanooga, Tenn.
A victory in this match meant the difference between a SoCon crown and finishing fourth in the league standings for the Phoenix. Appalachian State was looking to remain one of three teams with only two losses and have a chance at the number two seed in the upcoming league tournament. Suffice it to say, there was plenty riding on this match for both teams.
For the 11th straight match, Elon captured the doubles point and grabbed the early lead. The Phoenix's top doubles tandem of Chase Helpingstine and Nemec completed a perfect conference slate, winning its 17th straight match and finishing with an unblemished 10-0 league mark. The duo got a break in the first game over Philip Kloc and Alain Humblet en route to an 8-4 victory.
The matches on courts two and three were extremely tight with both teams realizing the magnitude of winning the doubles point. ASU's Sebastien King and Alex Markov broke serve to take a 4-3 lead over seniors Alberto Rojas and Cody Stauffer-MacDowell at number two. The Elon pair broke back and moved to a 6-5 advantage. The Mountaineers returned the favor and went back on top, 7-6, serving for the match. King and Markov forced the doubles point to be decided on court two with an 8-6 defeat.
Elon's Eric Turner and Cameron Silverman dug an early hole, dropping behind 4-1 to Sebastien King and Alex Markov to begin the match. The Phoenix finally broke serve and then tied the match at four-all. The two pairs traded serves before another Elon break gave Turner and Silverman the 6-5 advantage. As ASU closed out the win on court two, the crowd surged over to watch the end of the deciding match. After splitting games once again, Turner had the serve with a 7-6 edge. After losing the first point, Elon won the next four points to grab the 8-6 victory and clinch the doubles point. Silverman and Turner have won nine consecutive matches and are 10-1 on the year.
Despite Elon taking quick first sets in three matches, it was Appalachian who won the first singles match, as Kloc took a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Silverman on court two that made it 1-1. Elon answered at number one. Nemec won a fast first set, 6-2, over Markov, but suffered an early break to open the second set. Markov went up 2-0 before Nemec won three consecutive games to regain the lead, 3-2. With the score knotted at five, Nemec served to go ahead 6-5. The senior broke serve in the final game to win the match, 6-2, 7-5, and put Elon on top ultimately for good.
On court four, Rojas and King were on serve before the Phoenix senior won back-to-back games to lead 4-3 and then took the set, 6-4. The second set played out in similar fashion until Rojas got a break to go on top 5-4 before serving for the 6-4, 6-4 victory and a 3-1 Elon advantage. Rojas, winner of his last 11 matches, was a perfect 10-0 against league opponents this year.
Stauffer-MacDowell, Elon's third senior to come off the courts, produced the match-clinching victory at number six. He got up 4-0 over Matt Saltsgaver en route to a 6-1 first set win. On serve with a 5-4 advantage in the second, Stauffer-MacDowell broke Saltsgaver and was engulfed by a group of his Elon teammates as he secured the SoCon crown with a 6-1, 6-4 victory.
Turner and Helpingstine had the pressure lifted as each were working to erase deficits after falling behind in the first sets on courts three and five, respectively. Helpingstine completed the senior sweep as he rebounded for a 4-6, 6-3, 1-0 (10-6) defeat of McKinnon. Turner finished off the 6-1 win, cruising to victory after falling 7-6 in a tight opening set. Turner defeated Humblet, 6-7, (6), 6-2, 1-0 (7).
Furman 4, Davidson 3
GREENVILLE, S.C. - Sophomore Tyler Droll defeated Walker Lyons, 7-6, 1-6, 6-3, at number five singles to break a 3-3 tie and lead the Furman men's tennis team to a 4-3 win over Davidson Thursday afternoon at the Mickel Tennis Center in Greenville, S.C.
The Wildcats were victorious in two out of three doubles matches to win the doubles point and jump out to an early lead. Joel Schafer and Calum Gee teamed up to defeat Paladin senior Sawyer Duncan and sophomore Andrew Mellow, 8-4, in the top doubles match-up, and Chris Mark and Kevin Moore recorded an 8-6 win over senior Andrei Chvetsov and freshman Marco in the third doubles match. The Paladins tallied a win at number two doubles, as sophomore Joel Cook and Alex Christ beat Lyons and Ethan Kallick, 8-5.
Furman knotted the score at 1-1 early in singles action, as Christ defeated Gee, 6-1, 7-5 at number four singles. Mark then beat Mellow, 7-6, 7-6, at number two singles to put Davidson up 2-1. The remaining four singles matches would all go three sets, as Chvetsov beat Arie Hefter, 6-4, 2-6, 6-0 at number three singles, and Cook came from behind to beat Moore, 2-6, 6-3, 6-3, at number six singles to give Furman a 3-2 lead. Schafer posted a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over Duncan at number one singles to tie the match at 3-3 and set up the showdown at number five singles.