Samford 4, Elon 3
ELON, N.C. --- With the overall score of Friday's pivotal Southern Conference match knotted at 3-3, Samford men's tennis player Alexander Sajonz battled past the Elon Phoenix's Juan Madrid, 5-7, 6-4, 7-6(6), in the No. 5 singles contest to clinch a thrilling 4-3 victory held at The Jimmy Powell Tennis Center.
Samford (13-3, 7-1 SoCon) earned its second-straight win Friday and proved to be triumphant in 10 of its last 11 matches. Since Feb. 11, the Bulldogs have only been defeated once, in a hard-fought 4-3 decision on the road against first-place College of Charleston on March 23.
Since then, Samford has rallied for back-to-back conference victories over Davidson and Elon (8-13, 5-5 SoCon).
In Friday's nail-biting triumph over the Phoenix, Samford jumped out to an early 3-1 lead by winning the doubles point and then receiving singles victories from Fernando Costa and Elliot Barnwell. Costa, the Bulldogs' sophomore from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, earned his second-straight win by cruising past Elon's Andrew Prince, 6-1, 6-1, on court No. 4.
Samford's Barnwell gave his squad a 3-1 advantage by outlasting the Phoenix's Jordan Kaufman, 6-2, 2-6, 6-2, in the No. 3 singles contest. With his triumph, the Bulldogs' native of Mancetter, United Kingdom, improved his team-leading record in dual-match play to 14-2 this season.
Shortly after Barnwell's singles win gave Samford a 3-1 lead in Friday's match, Elon bounced back with consecutive victories on courts Nos. 6 and 2 to even the score at 3-3.
Once the Phoenix tied the match at 3-3, all eyes shifted to court No. 5 where Sajonz and Madrid were doing battle for the decisive singles point. Madrid won the first set 7-5, but the Bulldogs' native of Kungsbacka, Sweden, rallied back to take the second frame, 6-4. In the all-important third set, Samford's Sajonz fought to an epic 7-6(6) triumph to clinch the Bulldogs' critical 4-3 team win.
With the victory, Sajonz notched his team-leading sixth-straight triumph and improved to 11-4 in dual-match play this season.
College of Charleston 6, Furman 1
MT. PLEASANT, S.C. - The College of Charleston men's tennis team remained undefeated in Southern Conference play with a 6-1 victory over Furman on Friday afternoon at the CofC Tennis Center at Patriots Point.
The Cougars (12-3, 6-0 SoCon) have now won five in a row and took control of the match early by claiming the doubles point over the visiting Paladins (8-13, 5-3 SoCon).
Senior Mickael Trintignac and junior Kyle Parker defeated Furman's Alex Christ and Joe Cook, 8-5, at No. 1 doubles followed by junior Stephen Hardy and junior Billy Kenny winning their fourth-straight match, 8-4, at No. 3.
CofC would feed off of that momentum by winning five of the first six sets in singles. Freshman Alon Faiman allowed only three games in a 6-1, 6-2 straight-set victory over Luke Synn at the No. 6 line and sophomore Crescente Lesser rolled past Robbie Aru, 6-3, 6-4, at No. 4. Faiman and Lesser are both an undefeated 6-0 against SoCon opponents this season.
Kyle Parker clinched the match by fighting off Joel Cook in a second-set tiebreaker, 6-3, 7-6 (4), at No. 3. The Cougars also received big contributions from Mickael Trintignac, who dismantled No. 117-ranked Andrew Mellow, 6-3, 7-5, at No. 1 singles and senior Tom Delme, who won a 12-point third-set super tiebreaker over Alex Christ at No. 2.