Appalachian State 5, Wofford 2
SPARTANBURG, S.C. - The Wofford men's tennis team wrapped up their 2011 regular season with a match against Appalachian State on an extremely windy Saturday afternoon. The match featured Senior Day and highlighted the three graduation seniors, Alan Donald, Paul Bartholomy and Michael Schecter. The Terriers lost the early doubles point and gave up four singles matches to drop the match 5-2 to the Mountaineers.
Coach Ray's team concludes the regular season with an 8-12 overall record and a 4-6 standing in the Southern Conference. With four conference wins, the Terriers are currently at the No. 7 seed entering the Southern Conference tournament and will play the No. 10 seed Davidson. The winner of that match will move on to play the No. 2 seed Elon.
Appalachian State moves to 15-6 overall on the year with the victory. The win puts the Mountaineers at 7-3 in the conference and secures a No. 4 seed entering the conference tournament.
Today's match was plagued by extremely gusty conditions and Appalachian State seemed to adjust more efficiently to the wind, grabbing four singles wins and two doubles wins. The Terriers did win the No. 3 doubles match after Michael Schecter and Jack Seiffert beat Andrew McKinnon and Ezekiel Sansing 8-4. Senior duo, Paul Bartholomy and Alan Donald nearly put up the second doubles win to grab the point, but ended up losing a tight race to Sebastein King and Alex Markov, 9-7.
In singles, Tinus Van Wyk posted his second win of the weekend after knocking off the Mountaineer's top spot, Alex Markov, in straight sets. Van Wyk grabbed the win after finishing 6-4, 6-2. Stuart Robertson had the second singles win after defeating Alain Humblet at the No. 3 position. Robertson took his match to three sets after bageling Humblet in the first set, 6-0, and losing the second set 6-3. Robertson pushed for the win in the third set, 6-3.
Samford 4, Furman 3
GREENVILLE, S.C. --- The Samford University men's tennis team closed out its regular-season schedule with a crucial road victory Saturday against the Furman Paladins as the Bulldogs used stellar play in the singles competition to earn a 4-3 Southern Conference victory at the Mickel Tennis Center.
With the win, Samford (16-6, 6-4 SoCon) clinched the No. 5 seed in next week's SoCon Tournament and earned a first-round bye in the all-important 11-team competition to be held at The Champions Club in Chattanooga, Tenn. The top-five teams in the final conference standings received first-round byes.
Furman (7-18, 5-5 SoCon) also entered Saturday's contest with an identical 5-4 conference record. With a home victory against Samford, the Paladins would have secured the SoCon's fifth seed and a first-round bye. Instead, Furman will enter the tournament as the sixth-seeded team.
In Saturday's key conference showdown, the Paladins opened the contest by sweeping the doubles matches. Furman's Sawyer Duncan and Andrew Mellow combined for an 8-4 win over Samford's Oliver Reynolds and Carl Abalos in the top doubles match.
The Paladins' Joel Cook and Alex Christ then teamed up for an 8-2 victory over Zac Dunkle and Alexander Sajonz at No. 2 doubles, while senior Andrei Chvetsov and Marco Aru defeated the Bulldogs' Carson Kadi and Fernando Costa 8-5 in the third doubles match.
For the second straight match, Samford regrouped as a team in singles play and received clutch victories from Dunkle, Abalos, Costa and Sajonz to earn the thrilling 4-3 overall victory. Against Wofford on Friday, the Bulldogs opened their SoCon road trip with a similar 4-3 come-from-behind win against the Terriers.
Against Furman, Sajonz defeated Cook 6-2, 6-2 at No. 6 singles, then Costa topped the Paladins' Tyler Droll 6-3, 6-3, on court No. 5 to give the Bulldogs a 2-1 lead. The Paladins' Christ then evened the score at 2-2 after notching a 6-2, 6-4 win over Reynolds on court No. 4, before Samford recorded two more victories to clinch the team triumph.
Abalos defeated Chvetsov 6-4, 6-3, at No. 3 singles before Dunkle posted a 6-4, 6-2 triumph over Mellow in the second singles matchup. Furman's Duncan tightened the final score match at 4-3 with an inconsequential 7-6(5), 4-6, 10-5 win over Kadi in the top singles contest.
Samford's Costa and Abalos both extended their winning streaks to three-consecutive matches Saturday and improved their singles records to 15-6 and 16-5, respectively. Sajonz, the Bulldogs' talented sophomore transfer from Auburn University, tallied his second straight singles victory and moved his record to 15-5 this season.
With Dunkle's singles win, he improved his record to 13-8 at the highly competitive No. 2 position this year.