Men's Tennis Southern Conference

Saturday's Men's Tennis Roundup

Davidson 6, The Citadel 0

CHARLESTON, S.C. - For just the second time this year, the Wildcats won back-to-back matches when they took a 6-0 road win at The Citadel in men's Southern Conference tennis action on Saturday afternoon.

The Wildcats (6-15, 2-6 SoCon) made it two straight in league play and improved to 17-4 since 1988 vs. The Citadel. They have won their last five matches in a row against the Bulldogs (3-20, 0-10 SoCon).

Due to the expected rain in the area, the singles matches were played first and Davidson rolled, taking straight set wins in five of the six matches.

Sophomore Chris Mark got the winning ways going first with his fourth straight win, a 6-1, 6-1 triumph at No. 2 singles. Mark improved to 5-3 vs. SoCon foes and 9-12 overall.

Following Mark was the senior duo of Walker Lyons and Arie Hefter with a pair of wins at No. 5 and 4. Lyons took a 6-1, 6-2 decision for his eighth overall win, third at No. 5, and Hefter took home his second straight singles victory with a 6-2, 6-2 decision.

Calum Gee ran his singles mark to 7-10 on the season with a 6-3, 6-1 win over James Atkinson at No. 3.

Scoring the last two points for the 'Cats were Ethan Kallick and Joe Schafer with wins at No. 6 and 1 singles. Kallick remained unbeaten in league matches at 2-0 with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Jeremiah Dye. The freshman is 3-2 overall on the year.

Schafer finished out the match with a super tie-breaker win, 10-5, after splitting his first two sets with David Orces. The sophomore scored a tie-breaker first set win, 7-6 (7-3), but then dropped a 7-5 decision in the second set, setting up the third set super tie-breaker. With his singles win, Schafer ran his singles mark to a team-best 10-11 and evened his conference mark at 4-4.


College of Charleston 7, UNCG 0

CHARLESTON, S.C. - College of Charleston men's tennis swept its fourth conference opponent on Saturday afternoon with a 7-0 rout over UNC Greensboro at Patriots Point. The win put the Cougars in a tie for first place in the Southern Conference, alongside Elon who also earned a shutout today, over Wofford.

The Cougars (13-5, 7-1 SoCon) won two of three doubles matches to take an early 1-0 lead. Junior Tom Delme and sophomore Stephen Hardy dominated their opposition at the No. 2 spot, taking an 8-1 victory and moving to 11-6 on the season as a pair. Sophomore Billy Kenny (Pawley's Island, S.C.) and junior Mickael Trintignac clinched the doubles point with an 8-5 win at the No. 3 spot. The duo are 3-1 since pairing up in early April.

The wind picked up as the teams moved into singles competition. Trintignac was the first to defeat his opponent, winning his fourth straight and 15th match of the season at the No. 2 spot. Trintignac won the tiebreak in the first set before finishing off Timion Meijs 7-6(2), 6-2. Senior Mickael Boyer finished in similar fashion at the No. 4 spot with a 7-6(4), 6-3 victory over opponent Ahmet Sarioglu.

Senior Lukas Koncilia downed top-seeded Orcun Seyrek in straight sets (6-4, 6-4) to clinch the match for the Cougars and hand the Spartans their second conference loss of the season. Delme, sophomore Kyle Parker and Hardy all stretched their matches to three sets, coming from behind after losing the first set. Parker and Hardy earned wins in 10-point tiebreaks, while Delme won his third set 6-3. Delme and Hardy continue to be undefeated in conference play.


Elon 7, Wofford 0

ELON, N.C. - The Elon men's tennis team cruised to its seventh Southern Conference victory of the season with a 7-0 shutout over the visiting Wofford Terriers on Saturday afternoon at The Jimmy Powell Tennis Center. The Phoenix moved to 15-6 on the season and 7-1 in the league. The Terriers dropped to 7-10 overall with a 3-4 mark in the conference.

The match featured some exciting doubles competition, but a comeback victory by Elon's top doubles tandem earned the Phoenix the doubles point for the ninth straight match. Philip Nemec and Chase Helpingstine, ranked 49th in the country, moved to 16-1 on the season after pulling off a 9-8 (4) defeat of Tinus Van Wyk and Stuart Robertson to clinch the doubles point after the teams had split decisions on courts two and three.

At number three, the Phoenix's Cameron Silverman and Eric Turner extended their winning streak to seven straight with an 8-4 victory over Michael Schecter and Jack Seiffert. Wofford answered when Alan Donald and Paul Bartholomy managed to take a 9-7 win over Alberto Rojas and Cody Stauffer-MacDowell at number two, forcing the one match to determine the doubles point.

In singles action, Elon won five of the six matches in straight sets. Rojas was first of the courts yet again this year, remaining unbeaten in SoCon action with a 6-1, 6-1 victory against Drew Superstein at number five. Nemec made quick work of Van Wyk at number one singles, dropping only three games in a 6-3, 6-0 win. Elon clinched the match when Turner knocked off Robertson, 6-3, 6-4, at number three, helping the Phoenix maintain its position atop the league standings.

Carlos Arboleda came out strong in his SoCon debut at number six by defeating Bartholomy, 6-4, 6-1. Helpingstine lost his first set to Donald, 6-7, but came back in the second set 6-2 to force a third-set tiebreak. Helpingstine won the tiebreaker, 10-5, to finish the match and complete the sweep for the Phoenix.


Furman 7, Chattanooga 0

GREENVILLE, S.C. - The Furman men's tennis team blanked Chattanooga, 7-0, Saturday afternoon at the Mickel Tennis Center in Greenville, S.C.  The Paladins won all six singles and all three doubles matches in the team victory.

In doubles action, senior Sawyer Duncan and sophomore Andrew Mellow teamed up for an 8-4 win over Chris Smith and Stephen Crofford in the top doubles match, while sophomores Joel Cook and Alex Christ beat William Disterdick and Jackson Tresnan, 8-4, in the second singles match-up.  Senior Andrei Chvetsov and freshman Marco Aru defeated Orlando Lourenco and Jordan Faith, 8-3, at number three doubles.

Duncan defeated Smtih, 6-4, 6-2, in the top singles match, while Mellow beat Tresnan, 6-4, 6-2, at number two singles.  In the third singles match, Chvetsov beat Disterdick, 7-6, 6-3, and Christ beat van de Bovenkamp, 6-4, 6-2 at number four singles.  Cook notched a 6-3, 6-4 win over Crofford at number five singles, and sophomore Robbie Aru beat Lourenco, 6-1, 6-3 in the sixth singles contest.


Appalachian State 5, Georgia Southern 2

BOONE, N.C. - Appalachian State University tallied its fifth Southern Conference victory of the season with a 5-2 win over Georgia Southern on Saturday afternoon. ASU improves its record to 13-5 and 5-2 in SoCon play while GSU drops to 9-10 and 2-5 in league action.

The Mountaineers began the day with a bang by sweeping the doubles.

Philip Kloc and Alain Humblet made quick work of Juan Melian Puigventos and Matthijs Verdam at the number one slot winning 8-3. Sebastien King and Alex Markov followed suit as they won 8-4 at No. 2 while Andrew McKinnon and Ezekiel Sansin completed the sweep with an 8-5 triumph.

In singles play, Appalachian continued to play well as it claimed four of the six matches, with all wins coming in straight sets.

Matt Saltsgaver snagged the first singles win for ASU with a 6-1, 6-1 beating of Sebastien Felt at the six spot. The freshman moves to 13-5 on the season while posting an impressive 5-2 SoCon record.

Markov was the next to finish, but he was unsuccessful at No. 1 against Melian Puigventos, who is 18-1 on the season and 7-0 in conference play.

McKinnon grabbed a two-set win over Edio Castanhel at number five. The sophomore breezed through his competition 6-2, 6-4.

The next three matches got deep into their second set before rain began to pour on the ASU Tennis Courts, so those matches were finished on Grandfather Mountain's indoor courts.

Kloc snagged a first set 7-6 (7-5) before the rain came but was losing 5-4 when the match was moved indoors. The change of playing surface must have ignited the Australian because he came back to win the second set 7-5 over Alain Garrido at the number two position.

King nearly claimed his victory before the rain came, but he had to move indoors to finish his match out by defeating Mark Paetz 6-3, 6-3 at the No. 4 slot.

Humblet was the last to finish, as his match got pushed to three sets. The Canadian grabbed an early lead by winning the first set 6-4 but fell apart in the last two sets to lose 6-4, 6-4.