UNCG 6, Georgia Southern 1
GREENSBORO, N.C. - UNCG's men's tennis team swept through doubles play and picked up five singles wins on a gusty day at the UNCG Tennis Courts to down Georgia Southern in a Southern Conference tilt Saturday, 6-1.
Yaroslav Litus and Jacob Wright got the Spartans (12-4, 5-1 SoCon) off to a quick start with an 8-1 win at No. 2 doubles over Thomas Bekkers and Edio Castanhel. Orcun Seyrek and Timion Meijs followed suit, rallying from a 2-0 deficit to down Juan Melian Puigventos and Matthijs Verdam 8-4 at No. 1 to lock up the doubles point for UNCG.
Ahmet Sarioglu and Chanon Varapongsittikul also picked up an 8-4 win at No. 3, topping Derrick Davison and Alain Garrido.
Sarioglu was the first to wrap things up in singles play, dropping Castanhel 6-2, 6-3 at No. 4. Wright made quick work of Sebastien Felt at No. 6, cruising to a 6-1, 6-0 win.
Puigventos got the Eagles (9-8, 2-3 SoCon) on the board at No. 1, dropping Seyrek 6-1, 6-2. Meijs clinched the match for the Spartans just moments later, however, putting the finishing touches on his 6-3, 6-1 win over Verdam at No. 2.
Varapongsittikul defeated Mark Paetz at No. 5, 6-4, 6-2, while Litus needed three sets to top Garrido 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 at No. 3.
The weather was certainly a factor Saturday, as the team had to battle gusts topping 30 mph that ripped through the courts and altered several shots.
Elon 6, The Citadel 1
ELON, N.C. - The Elon men's tennis team remained unbeaten in Southern Conference play while extending its winning streak to seven consecutive matches with a 6-1 victory over The Citadel Bulldogs at The Jimmy Powell Tennis Center on a blustery spring Saturday. Despite wind gusts of up to nearly 40 miles per hour, Elon (13-5, 5-0) was quick to take the doubles point and three quick singles victories to clinch the match. The Citadel dropped to 3-17 overall, 0-7 in the league.
Doubles competition started the day and Elon's number three pair of Cameron Silverman and Eric Turner won seven consecutive games en route to an 8-1 victory over Jeremiah Dye and Josh Cook. The Citadel's James Atkinson and Dillon Berkabile got off to a good start with an early break on court two to lead Alberto Rojas and Cody Stauffer-MacDowell, 3-0, but the Phoenix duo stormed back to win five straight games and clinch the doubles point with an 8-6 win. Elon's top pair of Chase Helpingstine and Philip Nemec moved to 13-1 on the year with an 8-5 defeat of David Orces and Derek Dickey. Elon has swept the doubles matches in its last six matches.
In singles, Rojas finished his match before several courts had a set in. The senior lost only one game in a 6-1, 6-0 defeat of Cook at number five in a match that took under 50 minutes. Nemec made it a 3-0 Elon advantage, rolling to a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Orces on court one. Nemec has lost only four games in his last four sets. The clinching victory came on court two as Silverman topped Dickey 6-1, 6-4.
After taking a 6-2 victory in the opening set over Atkinson at number four, Helpingstine battled out a 7-5 second set win to move the score to 5-0 in favor of the home team. The Citadel got its first point when Berkabile got past Turner, 6-1, 7-6 (3) at number three. The final match of the day on court six went to a super tiebreaker for the third set as Tommy Darling took a 7-5, 6-7, 1-0 (5) victory over Elliott Sperr to make it a 6-1 final.
College of Charleston 7, Chattanooga 0
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - College of Charleston men's tennis swept its third conference opponent in just over a week with a 7-0 victory at Chattanooga on Saturday at UTC Tennis Center.
The Cougars (10-5, 4-1 SoCon) picked up the doubles point with new faces at the second and third seeds. Junior Mickael Trintignac paired with sophomore Billy Kenny to pick up an 8-2 win at the No.3 spot. Sophomores Stephen Hardy and Chris Toussaint followed suit, claiming their own 8-2 victory at the No.2 spot. The Mocs claimed their win as Roberto Vieira and Chris Smith narrowly edged senior Lukas Koncilia and sophomore Kyle Parker, 9-7, in the top doubles spot.
CofC won five of six singles matches in straight sets. Senior Tom Delme and Hardy each picked up their seventh straight victories at the third and sixth spots, respectively, and remain undefeated in conference play. Trintignac improved to 11-3 on the year with a three-set victory, rebounding after losing the first set in a tiebreak to win the next two.
Appalachian State 5, Davidson 2
LINVILLE, N.C. - Appalachian State University men's tennis pulled out 5-2 triumph over Southern Conference rival Davidson Saturday afternoon that went down to the wire for the two foes.
The Mountaineers (12-4, 4-1 SoCon) got off to a slow start by losing 2-of-3 doubles' matches, which marked only the fourth time this season that ASU hasn't claimed the always important doubles point.
Alain Humblet and Philip Kloc had their streak of 11 straight victories snapped in a 9-7 decision to Joe Schafer and Calum Gee at the number one doubles. Alex Markov and Sebastien King also dropped their match by falling 8-4 to Ethan Kallick and Walker Lyonsat the No. 2 pairing.
Appalachian's third duo of Ezekiel Sansing and Andrew McKinnon recorded the only doubles win for the Black and Gold as they beat Chris Mark and Kevin Moore8-5.
After the rarity of losing the doubles point, the Apps stepped up big in singles play by winning 5-of-6 matches to pull out a thrilling comeback triumph against the Wildcats (4-15, 0-6 SoCon).
Markov set the tone for the Mountaineers by breezing by Schafer 6-3, 6-1 at the number one spot. King and McKinnon followed suit as they also won their matches at the fourth and fifth position in straight sets guarantee an ASU victory.
Arguably the most exciting match was Kloc's comeback victory over Gee at No. 3. The Australian lost the first 6-4, but he battled back to win the pivotal second set 7-6 (7-2). After winning that set, Kloc carried all his momentum forward to easily grab the third set 6-3.
Humblet relinquished the Mountaineers' lone loss in singles action by losing a match to Mark at the number two position.
Matt Saltsgaver capped off ASU's day by defeating Lightbourn 7-6 (7-2), 6-3 at the six slot.