Samford 6, Georgia Southern 1
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. --- The Samford University men's tennis team improved to 4-0 in Southern Conference play Saturday as the Bulldogs registered a 6-1 triumph against the Georgia Southern Eagles in an early-league contest held at the Samford Tennis Center.
Samford (10-2, 4-0 SoCon) extended its winning streak to seven-consecutive matches Saturday. The Bulldogs remained undefeated in conference play and have not suffered a defeat since dropping a hard-fought 4-2 decision versus Southern Miss on Feb. 11. Samford's four-straight home SoCon victories have come against Wofford, Appalachian State, Furman and Georgia Southern (1-14, 0-4 SoCon).
In Saturday's win over the Eagles, Samford took an early 1-0 lead by taking the doubles point. The Bulldogs claimed the doubles victory by winning on courts Nos. 2 and 3.
Samford's tandem comprised of Fernando Costa and Carson Kadi cruised to an 8-1 triumph over Georgia Southern's pairing of Marco Osorio and Daniel Rush on court No. 3, while the Bulldogs' No. 2 doubles team of Elliot Barnwell and Ryan Shidler clinched the point with a key 8-6 victory. Samford's duo of Barnwell and Shidler helped secure the Bulldogs' 1-0 lead with the win.
In singles play, Samford rattled off straight-set triumphs from Zac Dunkle, Barnwell, Costa, and Sajonz. Barnwell extended his winning streak to six-straight matches Saturday by defeating the Eagles' Andrew Dromsky, 6-2, 6-2, on court No. 3. With the victory, Barnwell improved his team-best singles record on the season to a near-perfect 11-1.
The Bulldogs' Dunkle, who recently defeated the 110th-ranked player in the nation Friday, continued his winning ways Saturday by breezing by Georgia Southern's Alain Garrido in the No. 1 singles contest, 6-1, 6-1. Dunkle extended his singles winning streak to five-straight matches.
Samford's sixth point was registered on court No. 2 where Kadi outlasted the Eagles' Kyle Hoffman, 6-4, 3-6, 1-0(8). The win proved to be Kadi's sixth in a row as he improved to 6-1 at the No. 2 singles position this season.
College of Charleston 5, Elon 2
MT. PLEASANT, S.C. - Junior Kyle Parker made a second-set comeback winning five-straight games with two service breaks to lead the College of Charleston men's tennis team to a 5-2 victory over Elon on Saturday afternoon at the CofC Tennis Center at Patriots Point.
The Cougars (7-2) are now off to a 2-0 start to Southern Conference play, while the Phoenix (6-8, 3-1) dropped their first league meeting of the season. Both teams came into the match as the defending co-regular season champions compiling a 9-1 league record in 2011.
Parker was one of three CofC players to win his first set in singles. He rebounded from a 5-2 second-set deficit to defeat Elon's Eric Turner on serve, 6-3, 7-5, at No. 3 singles. Freshman Alon Faiman allowed only three games in a straight-set victory over Christopher Geaslen, 6-3, 6-0, at No. 6, while sophomore Brice Allanic relinquished only two games in the second set to Carlos Arboleda, 6-0, 6-2, at No. 4.
The Cougars went into singles play sweeping the doubles point for only the fourth time this year behind the court work of senior Tom Delme and Faiman, 8-3, at the No. 2 line followed by a pair of 8-4 wins by Allanic and sophomore Crescente Lesser at No. 3 and Parker and senior Mickael Trintignac at No. 1.
Lesser also contributed to the final team score winning a hard-fought three-setter over Jordan Kaufman, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3, at No. 4 singles. He improved his dual-match record to 7-1 which is currently tied as the best mark on the team with Allanic.
Wofford 6, The Citadel 1
SPARTANBURG, S.C. - The Wofford men's tennis team earned an early advantage by claiming the doubles point and didn't look back, earning a 6-1 victory over The Citadel Saturday afternoon at the Reeves Tennis Center.
With the win, the Terriers improve to 2-8 overall and 1-2 in Southern Conference play. The Citadel slips to 4-9 overall and 0-3 in league action.
In doubles play, the pairing of Tinus Van Wyk and Rob Galloway downed David Orces and Dillon Berkabile (8-6) at the No. 1 position, and the duo of Stuart Robertson and Tom Wood defeated Josh Cook and Peter Bleach (8-4) at the No. 2 spot to seal the doubles point for Wofford, giving the Terriers the early 1-0 advantage.
Wofford built on its early advantage, taking five of the six singles matches to seal the overall victory. At the No. 2 position, Drew Superstein downed Josh Cook in straight sets (6-1, 6-1), as did Jackson Keith at the No. 3 spot, defeating Dillon Berkabile (6-4, 6-3).
The Terriers dropped the first set in three matches, but fought back to win the following two sets in each match. At the No. 4 position, Rob Galloway defeated James Atkinson (6-7, 6-3, 10-6), Tom Wood defeated Peter Bleach (5-7, 7-5, 6-3) at the No. 5 spot, and Walker Heffron rallied to defeat Elliott Sperr (4-6, 7-5, 6-3) at the No. 6 position.
UNCG 5, Davidson 2
GREENSBORO, N.C. - UNCG's men's tennis team picked up a 5-2 win over Davidson on Saturday at the UNCG Tennis Courts.
The Spartans improved to 6-7 overall and 3-1 in Southern Conference action. Davidson fell to 4-8 overall and 1-2 in league play.
UNCG seized the early momentum by picking up the doubles point. Randy Phillips and Chanon Varapongsittikul got the ball rolling with an 8-4 win over Connor Evins and Chris Mark at No. 2, and Ahmet Sarioglu and Orcun Seyrek clinched the point with an 8-5 win over Calum Gee and Joe Schafer at No. 1.
The Wildcats avoided the doubles sweep when Robert Lightbourn and Kevin Moore downed Jimmy Roueche and Cameron Smith at No. 3, 8-4.
The singles matches finished in chronological order, with Seyrek making quick work of Schafer at No. 1, 6-1, 6-0. Sarioglu followed with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Nicky Kunz at No. 2 and Varapongsittikul clinched the match with a 7-6 (7-4) 6-1 win over Mark at No. 3. Phillips pushed UNCG's lead to 5-0 with a 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) win over Gee at No. 4.
The Wildcats avoided the sweep with a pair of wins in super tiebreakers at the bottom of the order. Lightbourn downed Smith by a 7-5, 3-6, 1-0 (10-3) count at No. 5 and Evins overcame a first-set loss to top Roueche 2-6, 6-4, 1-0 (10-6) at No. 6.