College of Charleston 6, Samford 1
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - College of Charleston men's tennis put an end to Samford's three-match win streak with a 6-1 victory over the Bulldogs on Sunday afternoon.
The Cougars (11-5, 5-1 SoCon) earned the doubles point with wins at the top two spots. Senior Tom Delme and sophomore Stephen Hardy defeated Zac Dunkle and Alexander Sajonz 8-5 at the No. 2 spot to improve to 10-6 on the year. Senior Lukas Koncilia and sophomore Kyle Parker also earned an 8-5 win at the top spot over Carl Abalos and Oliver Reynolds.
CofC and Samford (14-5, 4-3 SoCon) battled in singles with four of six matches going to a third set. Delme and Hardy claimed victories in straight sets at the third and sixth spots, respectively. Both remain undefeated in conference play with Delme posting a 6-0 mark and Hardy at 5-0.
Junior Mickael Trintignac won his second three-set match in as many days at the No. 2 spot with a 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 win over Dunkle. Parker followed suit with his own third-set win at the No. 4 spot. Both rebounded after first set losses to win the ensuing sets and boost the Cougars to their fifth conference victory.
Koncillia finished the day for CofC with his own three-set win, ending with a 10-point tiebreak over Carson Kadi at the top singles position. He improves to 8-7 on the year.
UNCG 7, The Citadel 0
GREENSBORO, N.C. - UNCG swept through doubles and singles play to cruise to a 7-0 win over The Citadel on Sunday. The Spartans won every singles match in straight sets.
UNCG (13-4, 6-1 Southern Conference) ran its home winning streak to six matches, while the Bulldogs fell to 3-18 overall and 0-8 in the league.
Orcun Seyrek and Timion Meijs got the day off to a good start with an 8-2 win over David Orces and Derek Dickey at No. 1 doubles. Ahmet Sarioglu and Chanon Varapongsittikul downed Josh Cook and Jeremiah Dye by the same score at No. 3 to lock up the doubles point for the Spartans. Yaroslav Litus and Jacob Wright completed the doubles sweep with an 8-3 win over James Atkinson and Dillon Berkabile at No. 2.
In singles play, Varapongsittikul quickly downed Cook 6-0, 6-1 at No. 5, while Seyrek wrapped up his 6-2, 6-1 win over Orces at No. 1 a few minutes later.
Wright clinched the match with his 6-2, 6-0 win over Elliott Sperr at No. 6. Litus smoked Berkabile 6-0, 6-0 at No. 3, and Meijs took a 6-0, 6-2 win over Dickey at No. 2.
Sarioglu wrapped up the day with a 7-5, 6-1 win over Atkinson at No. 4.
Davidson 4, Georgia Southern 3
DAVIDSON, N.C. - Senior Arie Hefter and sophomore Chris Mark both came back from first set defeats to win their singles matches in three sets, and the Davidson men's tennis team scored their first league win of the season with a 4-3 victory vs. Georgia Southern on a sunny Sunday afternoon at the Covington Tennis Courts for Senior Day.
The Wildcats (5-15, 1-6 SoCon) snapped a five-match skid and picked up their fifth win at home as they were playing their last regular-season home match.
GSU fell back to .500 with a 9-9 record and saw its Southern Conference record drop to 2-4.
Davidson was finally on the right side a 4-3 SoCon decision as it took the doubles point and then went on to capture three of the six singles matches. The 'Cats earlier this year had dropped 4-3 decisions to Chattanooga, Elon, Samford and Wofford.
For the fourth straight match, and seventh time in the last eight matches, the 'Cats took the early lead by earning the doubles team point.
Joe Schafer and Calum Gee ran their winning streak to four in a row with a 9-7 win at No. 1, while the team of Walker Lyons and Ethan Kallick made it two straight as a team with an 8-2 win at No. 2. The duo are a team-best 9-9 on the year, 5-2 vs. the SoCon. Lyons was playing his final career doubles match at home.
Davidson as a team is 13-8 overall in doubles matches vs. league opponents.
Mark and Hefter then took care of making sure the Wildcats secured the winning singles points when they both came back from first set defeats. Mark trailed 6-3 after one set, but charged back with a blanking of Matthijs Verdam in the second set, 6-0, and then won the match with a 6-4 victory at No. 2 singles.
Hefter rose to the challenge in his final singles match at home as a Wildcat. He saw Edio Castanhel take the first set, 6-2, at No. 4 singles, but the senior came back with his own 6-2 win in set two and then sealed up his fourth singles win of the year with an impressive 6-1 triumph in the final set. He snapped a personal nine-match losing streak with the win on the afternoon.
Davidson's final point came from Kallick, who cruised to a 6-1, 6-1 downing of Thomas Bekkers at No. 6. The freshman evened his record to 2-2 and picked up his first career SoCon victory.
Also playing in his final home match was Carter Braxton, who teamed with Mark at No. 3 doubles. The pair fell 8-2 as it was their first match together this year.
Elon 6, Furman 1
ELON, N.C. - The Elon men's tennis team improved upon its first-place Southern Conference record as the Phoenix defeated the Furman Paladins 6-1 on a beautiful day at The Jimmy Powell Tennis Center. The win marked Elon's (14-5, 6-0) first over Furman (3-16, 1-3) since the 2007 season. The Phoenix has now won eight consecutive matches as it heads into the home stretch of the year.
For seventh straight match, the Phoenix got on top early by taking the doubles point. On court three, Furman's Watson George and Tyler Droll grabbed an early break in game one over Elon freshman Cameron Silverman and junior Eric Turner. But, Elon was quick to break back as the duo won five straight games to take the 5-2 advantage. Serving with a 7-3 lead, Silverman finished off the 8-3 Elon victory.
The match at number two stayed on serve until the Paladins' Alex Christ and Joel Cook broke to move ahead 6-5 over Alberto Rojas and Cody Stauffer-MacDowell. The Furman tandem won two of the next three games and forced a deciding match at number one.
Furman's Sawyer Duncan and Andrew Mellow also got a break in the first game over 49th-ranked Philip Nemec and Chase Helpingstine. Trailing 3-2, the Phoenix pair broke to make it 3-3 before Nemec served to put Elon on top, 4-3. Elon didn't give up a point in the next game as it broke serve again and pulled out to a 5-3 advantage. Serving at 6-4 in a long game, Nemec held off Furman as the Phoenix moved within a game of the victory. Furman held serve before Helpingstine served out the 8-5 win and secured the doubles point for Elon. The Phoenix duo has not lost a match since the second match of the season at Duke.
In singles play, Rojas ran his unbeaten streak to seven straight as the senior quickly took a 6-2, 6-3 win over Cook on court five. Elon ran its lead to 3-0 when Turner earned a straight-set 6-3, 6-4 win over Christ at number three.
On court four, Helpingstine grabbed an early 4-1 lead over Droll in the opening set. After a Furman break, Helpingstine led 5-4 but Droll won back-to-back games to take the 6-5 lead. Helpingstine forced the breaker and took the set with an 8-6 win in the tiebreak. The Elon senior flew through the second set to defeat Droll, 7-6 (6), 6-1, and clinch the match for the Phoenix.
With the match result determined, a three-set match developed on court one. Nemec shutout Duncan in the opening set and held a 4-1 lead in the second before Duncan found his stroke. The Paladin senior rebounded to make it 6-6 and force a tiebreaker. Nemec led 5-2 in the breaker, but again Duncan found a way to stay in the match won the next five points to split sets. Duncan came away with the 6-0, 7-6 (5), 6-4 victory to give Furman what would prove its lone point.
One of the most intense matches of the day came on court two and featured Silverman and Mellow. Silverman was quick to take a 6-1 first set, but Mellow made it interesting in the second set. Down 6-5, Silverman won the game and the two began a lengthy tiebreak. Mellow managed to take the set on a 10-8 tiebreaker. With the match outcome decided, a super tiebreaker ensued to decide the winner. Twenty-two points later, Silverman finally came away with the 6-1, 6-7 (8), 1-0 (10) victory to give the Phoenix a 5-1 advantage.
The final singles match of the afternoon lasted nearly three hours in a three-set thriller between Tommy Darling and Robbie Aru. Down 4-1 in the opening set, Darling battled back and won six of the next seven games to take the set 7-5. Unfortunately, momentum didn't stick and Aru took the second set, 6-2. With all eyes on court six, Darling pulled out to a 4-1 advantage in the final set, but the match was far from over. Aru battled back and tied the match at 6-6. Darling finally finished off the win in the breaker and took the match, 7-5, 2-6, 7-6 (4).