UNCG 5, Gardner-Webb 2
GREENSBORO, N.C. - UNCG's men's tennis team picked up its first win of the season Saturday, topping Gardner-Webb 5-2 at the Piedmont Indoor Tennis Center.
UNCG (1-2) got off to a 1-0 lead by taking the doubles point. Orcun Seyrek and Ahmet Sarioglu picked up an 8-2 win over Joao Poli and Ernest Alberch at No. 1. The Spartans clinched the point at No. 3, with Jimmy Roueche and Cameron Smith taking an 8-6 win over Stephen Martin and Roman Piftor.
Gardner-Webb (1-3) avoided the doubles sweep with a win at No. 2. Adam Knutsson-Sundlad and Korhan Ates downed Randy Phillips and Chanon Varapongsittikul, 8-4.
In singles play, Brendan Dempsey pulled the Runnin' Bulldogs even with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Roueche at No. 6. Sarioglu nabbed the Spartans' first singles win at No. 2, dropping Knutsson-Sundlad by a 6-4, 7-5 count.
Varapongsittikul made it a 3-1 contest with a win at No. 3, defeating GWU's Piftor, 6-3, 7-6 (7-5). Seyrek clinched the match for UNCG with a win at No. 1, bouncing back from a first-set loss to take a 5-7, 6-3, 6-3 win over Ates.
Alberch and Phillips waged an epic battle at No. 4, with Alberch coming out on the winning end of a 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (10-8) duel.
Smith wrapped things up with a 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 win over Poli at No. 5.
UNCG has little time to celebrate its first win of the season, as the Spartans host UNC Asheville at the Piedmont Indoor Tennis Center on Sunday at 4 p.m. Admission is free.
Chattanooga 6, Lipscomb 1
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's tennis team posted an impressive 6-1 win over Lipscomb at the Hixson Racquet Club today. The Mocs swept the singles matches to improve to 3-2 on the year.
The Bison (1-3) took the doubles point, winning at No. 1 and No. 3. Colby Shaw and David Salazar defeated the Mocs No. 3 duo of junior Jackson Tresnan and freshman Pavels Grigorjevs 8-4. UTC evened it up with juniors Stephen Crofford and Ankit Chopra posting an 8-6 win at No. 2.
The decider for the doubles point was a marathon at No. 1 between UTC juniors Chris Smith and Roberto Vieira and Lipscomb's Oliver Streck and Daniel Hernandez. The Bison took the match and the point with a 9-8 victory, winning 7-5 in the tiebreaker.
Any momentum Lipscomb had after going up 1-0, Chattanooga quickly took back. The Mocs won the first set in all six singles matches. Vieira made quick work of Strecker (6-2, 6-1) at No. 1 to tie the score while Chopra gave UTC the lead with a win at No. 3.
Freshman Manuel Barroetavena posted his second win of the spring with a (6-3, 6-3) victory over Tanner Brown at No. 4. Smith clinched the win at No. 2, improving to 3-1 since moving up to the second spot in the lineup. Tresnan and Grigorjevs both had three-set wins at No. 5 and No. 6, respectively.
The Mocs are back in action next week hosting Belmont. Match time is set for Friday, Feb. 10 at 5:00 p.m.
Florida Gulf Coast 5, Georgia Southern 2
NAPLES, Fla. - The Georgia Southern Men's Tennis team dropped its second-straight match in Florida on Saturday, falling to Florida Gulf Coast by a 5-2 score. Tight matches again were the storyline for the Eagles, but they came out on the losing end of most of them.
The Eagles (1-3) fell behind early in the match by losing the doubles point and were unable to get a victory in any of the three matches. Kyle Hoffman and Matthijs Verdam took their match to a tiebreaker at No. 1 doubles but came up just short, losing 8-7 (7-4). Alain Garrido and Andrew Dromsky fell at No. 2 doubles, 8-4.
Dromsky got the Eagles back into the match by picking up his first collegiate singles victory, winning at No. 6 singles by a 6-3, 7-6 (7-0) score. His doubles partner, Garrido, also got in the win column while playing his first match of the year at #1 singles. He prevailed 7-5, 5-7, 10-4 in a ten-point match tiebreaker over Matthew Rock. However, none of the other Eagles were able to match their success. Hoffman and Albert Codina Sala lost tough three-setters, and Verdam lost at No. 2 singles by a 6-4, 6-3 score.
"We did a much better job of starting quickly in singles today, but we didn't finish when we had the lead," said Head Coach Nick Zieziula. "This road trip is a great weekend for us to expose areas where we need a lot more work, and it's a great opportunity for us to test our resiliency and ability to deal with adversity."
The Eagles conclude their Florida swing when they travel to Orlando on Sunday to take on the Knights of Central Florida. First serve is set for 1:30 p.m.
Presbyterian 5, The Citadel 2
CHARLESTON, S.C. - David Orces earned his second win at No. 1 singles in a 5-2 loss to Presbyterian College on Saturday. Elliot Sperr also earned points for The Citadel, capturing his first win of the season in No. 6 singles.
Orces defeated Grayson Mills in a thrilling three set match. The Dogs' No. 1 fell short in the first set losing, 5-7, but was able to seize the momentum and take the second set, 6-4 and the tie-breaking final set 13-11.
Sperr was victorious over Ryan Walters winning the match 6-0, 7-5. Last season, Sperr tabbed singles wins against Johnson C. Smith and Lenior-Rhyne.
Although freshman Peter Bleach was not able to put up points for the Bulldogs, he played a hard fought match in the No. 2 singles position. Bleach fought off his opponent Rafael Berghaus and took the first set, 6-7, but was unable to hold his Blue Hose foe off losing the second set, 6-4 and the tie-breaking set 13-11.
The duo of Orces and Josh Cook also fought a hard battle in the No. 1 doubles position. Coming off a win against Coastal Carolina, the Bulldog pair was unable to outlast the play of Berghaus and Mills losing 8-7.
Bulldog Head Coach Kemper Baker was encouraged by the improvement he has already seen this season.
"I feel as though our team competed extremely well today. The players showed significant improvement from last week, but just came up a little bit short."
The Dogs hit the road for the first time to season to play Benedict on February 15 at South East Park in Columbia, S.C.