Elon 4, Davidson 3
ELON, N.C. - For the second straight day, freshman Jordan Kaufman provided the match-clinching three-set victory for the Phoenix, leading the Elon men's tennis team past the visiting Davidson Wildcats, 4-3, at The Jimmy Powell Tennis Center on a beautiful spring Sunday afternoon. Elon evened its record at 6-6 and the defending league champions remained unbeaten in Southern Conference action at 3-0. The Wildcats dropped to 4-7 overall, 1-1 in the conference.
A tightly contested doubles point swung Elon's way on the strength of victories by its top two doubles tandems. Phoenix rookies Stefan Fortmann and Jordan Kaufman opened the day with a quick 8-2 win against Kevin Moore and Ethan Kallick on court two. Davidson's Connor Evins and Chris Mark made things interesting after topping Christopher Geaslen and Andrew Prince, 8-6, at number three.
Knowing the doubles point was in their hands, the number one doubles pairs weren't going down easy. Needing a tiebreaker to decide the winner, Cameron Silverman and Eric Turner trailed Joe Schafer and Calum Gee 5-1 before reeling off six straight points to take the 9-8 (5) victory and put Elon ahead, 1-0.
Fortmann won his seventh straight singles match, improving to 9-2 in dual action with his 6-4, 6-0 defeat of Mark at number two.
Davidson got on the board when Turner was forced to retire after a long first set at number three. Nicky Kunz was leading 7-6, 3-0 when Turner retired.
With the match at 2-1, Silverman let a 4-1 lead in the second set slip a bit before he finished off Schafer with a 6-2, 7-5 victory on court one. The sophomore was perfect on the weekend with two singles and two doubles victories.
Kaufman rebounded after dropping his first set to earn his third consecutive conference victory, an important one for Elon. The rookie topped Robert Lightbourn, 4-6, 6-2, 6-2, to clinch the match for the Phoenix.
The match already determined, Gee battled out a 7-5, 7-5 defeat of Juan Madrid at number four. In the final match of the afternoon, Elon's Carlos Arboleda split sets with Connor Evins at number six. The two played a 10-point tiebreaker to decide the match with Evins coming out on top, 4-6, 6-4, 1-0 (5).
Chattanooga 4, UNCG 3
GREENSBORO, N.C. - UNCG swept through doubles play and won the first two singles matches, but Chattanooga rallied for four straight singles victories to steal the road win in Southern Conference men's tennis action Sunday at the UNCG Tennis Courts, 4-3.
After the Spartans (5-7, 2-1 SoCon) jumped out to a 3-0 lead, the Mocs (9-3, 1-1 SoCon) came storming back to tie the match at 3, leaving the match in the hands of UNCG's Chanon Varpongsittikul and Chattanooga's Chris Smith at No. 3 singles.
Varpongsittikul won the opening set 6-4, but Smith came back to win the second, 7-6 (7-1). Varapongsittikul held a 5-4 lead in the third set but Smith again had an answer, winning the final three games and closing with an ace for the 7-5, match-clinching win.
UNCG won a trio of close matches to clinch the doubles point. Varapongsittikul and Randy Phillips got things going with an 8-6 win over Smith and Manuel Barroetavena at No. 2 and Ahmet Sarioglu and Orcun Seyrek clinched the point with a 9-7 win over Ankit Chopra and Sam Parfitt at No. 1. Jimmy Roueche and Cameron Smith completed the sweep at No. 3, downing Pavels Grigorjevs and Jackson Tresnan, 8-7 (7-4).
Seyrek gave UNCG a 2-0 advantage with a win over Roberto Vieira at No. 1 singles. After Seyrek won the opening set 6-3, Vieira retired with injury. Sarioglu put the Spartans up 3-0 with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Chopra at No. 2, but the tide was about to turn.
Barroetavena got Chattanooga on the board with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Phillips at No. 4, and Tresnan pulled the Mocs within a point with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Cameron Smith at No. 5. Grigorjevs tied the match at No. 6, overcoming a first-set loss to take a 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 win over Roueche.
Chris Smith followed with his dramatic win at No. 3 as the Mocs overcame first-set losses in each of their final two singles matches to clinch their first league win of the season and first win over UNCG since 2007.
Samford 4, Appalachian State 3
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. --- The Samford University men's tennis team continued its winning ways Sunday as the Bulldogs registered a hard-fought 4-3 Southern Conference victory against the Appalachian State Mountaineers in a critical early-league contest held at the Samford Tennis Center.
With Sunday's triumph, Samford (8-2, 2-0 SoCon) extended its winning streak to five-straight matches.
The Mountaineers began play in a seven-match road trip Sunday and suffered their first loss since a 6-1 setback at East Tennessee State on Feb. 25. On Feb. 26, Appalachian State bounced back with a dominant 6-1 home victory against Belmont.
In Sunday's SoCon showdown, the Bulldogs were able to rally for the all-important doubles point. Samford's pairing of Fernando Costa and Carson Kadi quickly posted an 8-0 victory in the No. 3 contest before the Bulldogs' duo comprised of Elliot Barnwell and Ryan Shidler battled for a crucial 9-8(7) triumph on court No. 2 over Appalachian State's Alain Humblet and Alex Markov.
After earning the early 1-0 lead Sunday, Samford added straight-set singles wins from Kadi on court No. 1, 6-4, 6-4, and Barnwell on court No. 3, 6-4, 6-2, to total three team points. With Barnwell's victory, he improved his team-best singles record this season to 9-1, while Kadi improved to 4-1 on court No. 2.
Appalachian State tied the overall score of the match at 3-3 by sweeping the bottom half of the singles competition. The Mountaineers' Sebastien King was victorious on court No. 4, while Steven Karendal won on court No. 5 and Matt Saltsgaver tallied a three-set victory in the No. 6 singles contest.
With the overall score of the match tied at 3-3, all attention shifted to court No. 1 where Samford's Zac Dunkle was tangling with Appalachian State's Markov in the decisive contest of the day.
Dunkle, the Bulldogs' talented junior from Atlanta, Ga., dropped the first set 6-4, but then bounced back to secure victories in the next two frames 7-5, 6-3. With the victory, Dunkle improved to 8-2 on the season and Samford secured the thrilling 4-3 triumph.
College of Charleston 6, Charlotte 1
MT. PLEASANT, S.C. - The College of Charleston men's tennis team won its third-straight dual match with a 6-1 non-conference victory over UNC Charlotte on Sunday afternoon at the CofC Tennis Center.
The Cougars (5-2) were playing on their home courts for only the second time this season after traveling on the road for five of their first seven including a two-match road trip to south Florida over spring break. Meanwhile, the 49ers (10-5) dropped only their second match in their last six contests.
CofC swept the doubles point for the fourth time this year as sophomore Brice Allanic and sophomore Crescente Lesser combined for an 8-1 rout of Charlotte's Paul Cisti and Anthony Davison at the No. 3 line followed by senior Tom Delme and freshman Alon Faiman over Kamil Khalil and Krzysztof Kwasniewicz, 8-6, at No. 2.
The Cougars' top tandem of senior Mickael Trintignac and junior Kyle Parker won a 7-4 tiebreaker en route to a close 9-8 decision at No. 1 to finish out the point.
In singles play, Delme gave up only one game to Charlotte's Alex Calott in a 6-1, 6-0 win at the No. 2 line, while Allanic dispatched Nate Shanok, 6-3, 6-2, at No. 5. Trintignac clinched the match with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over the 49ers' top player Jack Williams at the top of the order.
Lesser claimed his fifth-straight win, which is currently the best streak on the team, with a 6-4, 6-2 decision over Anthony Davison at No. 4 singles.
"Today was a good result for us against a UNC Charlotte team that has a couple of young players that have beaten a few teams in our conference this season," CofC Head Coach Jay Bruner said. "It was a good test for us, especially to see what we would bring after a long road trip to south Miami. I was pleased with how we came out and competed in singles and doubles.
"We tried a couple of new combinations and lineups, even in singles, so it was good for us to get in some of those matches. It was great to have some success against a team that has played a bunch of matches this season and it's always nice to be back home and playing in beautiful weather in Charleston."
CofC will open Southern Conference play on the road at Wofford (1-7, 0-1 SoCon) on Thursday, March 15 at 2:30 p.m. (ET) in Spartanburg, S.C.
Georgia State 7, Georgia Southern 0
STATESBORO, Ga. - The Georgia Southern Men's Tennis team completed their non-conference schedule in disappointing fashion with a 7-0 loss to Georgia State on Sunday afternoon. The Panthers improved to an impressive 12-2 on the season with the victory.
The Eagles (1-12, 0-2 SoCon) opened the match by losing three tight matches in doubles play. The No. 1 doubles tandem of Alain Garrido and Andrew Dromsky, winners of three of their previous four matches, fell by an 8-5 score to Victor Valente and Juan Pablo Gutierrez, putting the Eagles in an early hole. The doubles point was clinched by the Panthers when Ismael Lahlou and Sofiane Chevallier defeated freshmen Albert Codina Sala and Kyle Hoffman at No. 3 doubles, 8-6. Thomas Cook and Matias Hatem also won for the Panthers by an 8-6 score in a close contest at No. 2 doubles against Daniel Rush and Marco Osorio.
The Panthers were able to pull away from the Eagles in singles play. Lahlou defeated Rush at No. 5 singles and Chevallier downed Dromsky at No. 4 singles, giving the Panthers a 3-0 lead. The match was clinched when Garrido fell at No. 1 singles to Valente, the No. 14 player in the ITA Southeast Singles rankings. Hoffman lost at No. 2 singles to Hatem, followed by Sebastien Felt losing to Gutierrez at No. 6 singles by a 6-2, 6-3 score. Codina Sala attempted to make a comeback but was stalled by Cook at No. 3 singles, 6-1, 7-6 (10-8).
The Eagles have faced an arduous slate of non-conference opponents this season. The combined record of their 11 non-conference foes is a hefty 77-45. The Eagles will look to take this valuable experience and translate it to wins in the remainder of their conference schedule.
Next up for the Eagles is a road battle with the Chattanooga Mocs on Thursday afternoon. The official start time of the match is still to be determined. The road trip will continue when the Eagles face Samford on Saturday morning at 11 a.m.