Chattanooga 4, Belmont 3
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's tennis team posted a hard-fought 4-3 win over Belmont at the Hixson Racquet Club tonight. The Mocs came from behind after losing the opening doubles point for the second straight match.
It was a tight battle in all three doubles contests. Juniors Roberto Vieira and Chris Smith lost 8-6 at No. 1 to Renato Antum and Rafael Matos.
The No. 2 match went to a tiebreaker after being deadlocked at eight games each. Juniors Ankit Chopra and Stephen Crofford were trailing 5-3 in the breaker before closing the gap to 6-5. Bruno Silva snuck a return down the right side, earning the win for himself and teammate Hanrigue Norbiato and the doubles point for Belmont.
Despite playing the fewest games, the No. 3 match took the longest. Junior Jackson Tresnan and freshman Pavels Grigorjevs came away with an 8-5 win over Fernando Mussolini and Rodrigo Amaral.
Belmont seemed to keep the momentum going early on, grabbing the first set in three of the singles matches. "They jumped on us early," stated head coach Carlos Garcia. "Between winning the doubles point and getting out in front in the singles matches, they put us in a hole early."
Smith helped UTC dig out of that hole quickly with another strong performance, improving to 4-1 at No. 2. He made fast work of Antun in a (6-4, 6-2) win. Smith was off the court 30 minutes before any other match, tying the team score at 1-1.
UTC took the lead when Vieira defeated Amaral in straight sets at No. 1. Vieira moved to 4-2 overall in the top spot with the (6-4, 6-2) victory. Belmont tied the score a 2-2 with Silva's three set win at No. 3 over Grigorjevs (6-4, 1-6, 6-3).
That left three matches on the court with both teams needing two wins. The Mocs were down a set in two of the three, but Chopra and junior Manuel Barroetavena both forced a third set in their matches at No. 3 and No. 4, respectively.
At the same time, Tresnan won a first-set tiebreaker (7-5) to go up in his match at No. 5. Tresnan would be the first to win among the final three matches. He dominated his second set against a cramping Mussolini to win (7-6 (7-5), 6-2).
Chopra was also cramping, but ran off a 6-1 win in the second frame to send his match against Norbiato to a third set. Chopra got behind 4-1 early in the final frame, but managed to cut the lead back down to 4-3. However, as the match went on, his leg cramps reduced his mobility and his chance of winning.
That left Barroetavena's nail-biter as the ultimate deciding match. He lost the first frame 7-5 to Matos, but flipped the score to win the second set. All eyes were focused on the third set of this match, with Barroetavena eventually pulling out a 6-3 win. That gave Chattanooga a 4-2 lead and clinched the team victory. Chopra would go on to lose his match (7-5, 1-6, 6-3) to end the scoring at 4-3.
"I am proud of the way our guys battled today," added Garcia. "When you are able to grind out matches like these, you give yourself a chance to win. It is nice to see us coming away with a tough one like this early in the season."
UTC improves to 4-2 overall while the Bruins fall to 0-2. The Mocs are back at home on Sunday, Feb. 12, hosting Gardner-Webb at the Hixson Racquet Club. Match time is set for 10:00 a.m. (E.S.T.) and a live scoring link will be available on the men's tennis schedule page on GoMocs.com.
UAB 4, Samford 3
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. --- The Samford University men's tennis team suffered its first loss of the 2012 dual-match season Friday as the Bulldogs were outlasted by the UAB Blazers, 4-3, in a grueling six-hour, intra-city contest held at the Samford Tennis Center.
"I am just as proud of this team as I have been the last few matches, even though we came up a little short today," said Samford head coach Rahim Esmail. "Our guys showed tremendous desire and heart. UAB is a very talented team, and played a great match. They deserve a lot of credit. We are doing a lot of good things out there, and we can take many positives away from this match."
With the defeat, Samford (3-1) had its season-opening, three-match winning streak snapped. Prior to Friday's meeting with UAB (4-1), the Bulldogs reeled off consecutive non-conference victories against Lipscomb 4-3, USC Upstate 5-2 and Troy, 4-3.
Samford will compete in its third match in three days Saturday as the Bulldogs play host to their second straight Conference USA foe in Southern Miss at 11 a.m. (CST).
UAB opened Friday's match against Samford with a 1-0 lead by sweeping the doubles point. In singles play, the Bulldogs received victories from Zac Dunkle, Elliot Barnwell and Fernando Costa.
Dunkle's win occurred on court No. 2 as he battled past UAB's David Zimmerman, 7-6(4), 6-3. Samford's Barnwell then increased his winning streak to four straight matches with a 6-1, 1-6, 6-3 triumph over the Blazers' Chris Helliar in the No. 3 singles contest.
The Bulldogs' third singles victory came at court No. 4 as sophomore Fernando Costa cruised to a 6-1, 6-2 win against UAB's Lucas Dirube.
With his straight-set triumph Friday, Costa improved to 4-0 in singles play. Dunkle also remained undefeated on the season with a similar 4-0 record.
The clinching singles match occurred on court No. 6 Friday. With the overall score tied at 3-3, all attention shifted to the epic battle between Samford's Ryan Shidler and UAB's Tom Puetz. Already six hours into the cross-town rivalry contest, Puetz tallied the first set 6-3, but then Shidler fought back for a 6-2 triumph in the second frame.
In the third and final set of the night, Puetz rallied for a 6-4 win to give the Blazers their 4-3 victory.
The Samford University men's tennis team will next be in action Saturday at 11 a.m. (CST) as the Bulldogs conclude their arduous three-day stretch with a home contest against the Southern Miss Golden Eagles to be held at the Samford Tennis Center.