College of Charleston 4, Davidson 3
CHARLESTON, S.C. - College of Charleston's Charlie Ghriskey won a three-set match against the Wildcats' Chris Mark for the match-clinching point as Davidson fell 4-3 on Sunday afternoon in men's Southern Conference tennis action.
The Wildcats dropped their first league match, falling to 2-1 and 8-4 overall. CofC ran its record to 3-6 on the campaign overall and 1-2 in SoCon action.
Mark, who Friday helped the Wildcats win at The Citadel, rolled in his first set, 6-1, but then dropped back-to-back 7-5 decisions at No. 4 singles.
Down 2-0, senior Joe Schafer registered his third straight win and eighth on the year, with a 6-1, 7-5 triumph at No. 2 to get the Wildcats on the board.
Nicky Kunz won a thriller at No. 1 singles against Brice Allanic. The sophomore dropped the first set, 6-4, but regrouped and took his own 6-4 match to force the third set. The last set went the distance, with Kunz prevailing 7-6 to move to 7-4 on the season.
At No. 5 singles, Connor Evins scored the final team point. He also went the distance, moving his SoCon mark to 3-0 with a 3-6, 7-6, 6-2 victory over Alon Faiman.
For just the fourth time this year, Davidson dropped the doubles point. The No. 1 team of Schafer and Ethan Kallick netted the lone win with an 8-6 victory to improve to 4-2 on the season. The Wildcats battled in the other two spots, falling 8-5 and 8-6.
Appalachian State 5, Army 2
BOONE, N.C. - Appalachian State men's tennis grabbed a much needed victory Sunday afternoon after defeating Army 5-2 at UCF Tennis Complex in Orlando, Fla.
The Mountaineers (2-6) secured the win through their singles performance after posting a 5-1 record against the Black Knights (8-3).
Appalachian got off to a shaky start in morning action, where the Black Knights grabbed the doubles decision after pulling the first two flights. Asika Isoh and Harrison McCormick defeated Sebastien King and Jan Willem-Kleynhan (8-2) at No. 1, along with Austin McCasin and Rashad Shelton who bested Andrew McKinnon and Zach Bost (8-6) in No. 2. The Mountaineers managed to come back in No. 3, when Steve Karendal and Steve Lake took the tiebreaker over Peter Sienko and Henry Jang-Milsten (8-7 (7-3)).
The Mountaineers found themselves better positioned in afternoon singles competition, as they captured five-of-six matches. King redeemed himself against Isoh in three sets at No. 1 flight (7-5, 3-6, 6-2), while Karendal posted a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Caison Best at No. 2 to edge Appalachian by one (2-1). Bost found a win at the No. 3 spot against Shelton (6-2, 6-3), and McKinnon defeated Sienko with a win from retirement (4-6, 6-4, 3-1) to give the Mountaineers a three point advantage (4-1). Saltsgaver secured the Appalachian victory with a No. 5 flight victory over McCormick (6-4, 6-2), while Cacha scored Army's final point of the day on a 6-2, 6-2 decision against Robert Jenkins.
Up next, the Mountaineers will return to the court on March 12 in Jacksonville, Fla. for a 1 p.m. match against Northern Illinois.
Samford 7, Eastern Kentucky 0
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Samford University men's tennis team improved its record at home this season to a near-perfect 5-1 on Sunday as the No. 59-ranked Bulldogs breezed to a 7-0 victory against former Ohio Valley Conference-rival Eastern Kentucky in a nonconference matchup held at the Samford Tennis Center.
"Overall, I am pleased with our win today," said Samford head coach Rahim Esmail. "We got off to a great start in doubles and took care of business right from the start. Each week, we are getting better and better, and are continuously working on the things that we need to improve on each week."
Samford (6-4) cruised to the doubles point Sunday with victories on courts No. 1 and No. 2. In the No. 1 doubles matchup, the Bulldogs' No. 36-ranked combination of Zac Dunkle and Garrison Laduca earned an 8-1 victory, while Samford's No. 2 duo comprised of Elliot Barnwell and Austin Akers defeated Eastern Kentucky's Daridge Saidi and Joao Maio, 8-2.
Already this season, the Bulldogs' doubles tandem of Dunkle and Laduca has compiled an unblemished 4-0 record on court No. 1. Samford's pairing of Barnwell and Akers improved its doubles record to 3-1 in dual-match play this year.
Eastern Kentucky (5-9) suffered its third straight defeat Sunday. Since defeating Pikeville, 7-0, on Feb. 23, the Colonels have dropped consecutive road contests at Liberty, 6-1, at Radford, 4-1, and at Samford, 7-0. Eastern Kentucky owns an 0-8 record when playing on the road this season.
"Eastern Kentucky is a good, young team and they will be a much better team in April than they were today," Esmail said. "I am happy to get out of today with a convincing win over a solid team, and look forward to getting back to work this week in preparation for our upcoming matches."
Samford swept all six singles matches Sunday. Against the Colonels, the Bulldogs' Dunkle, Barnwell, Fares Kilani and Akers all won in straight sets.
Akers, Samford's sophomore native of Lexington, Ky., improved his team-best singles record on the season to 7-2. Kilani moved to 7-3 in dual-match play, with all of his victories coming at the No. 3 singles position.
The Bulldogs' Alex Sajonz and Laduca both won Sunday in three-set matches. Sajonz, Samford's senior native of Kungsbacka, Sweden, defeated Eastern Kentucky's Lucas Smets, 6-3, 5-7, 1-0(7) on court No. 4, while Laduca rallied for a 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 triumph over the Colonels' Florian Graskamp in the No. 6 singles matchup.
Louisiana-Lafayette 5, Georgia Southern 2
ATLANTA -- Georgia Southern Men's Tennis fell to Louisiana at Lafayette in a neutral site match-up in Atlanta on Sunday. The Eagles (5-4, 1-0 SoCon) fell into an early gap after losing all three doubles matches and were not able to recover in singles play in a hard fought match against the Ragin' Cajuns (8-7).
"We didn't execute well in doubles at all today. We did a good job at the start of singles of elevating our play but we made key errors towards the end of sets that cost us. Louisiana played a strong match and we didn't match their execution today," said Head Coach Nick Zieziula.
Being down 3-0 in the match, junior Marco Osorio put a dent in the score, winning his match on court five against Jarred Wynan 7-6 (6), 6-1. It wasn't enough as the Eagles dropped the next, having Louisiana at Lafayette take the match clincher.
After the match was determined, freshman Rayane Djouad did not let down and added his team leading sixth singles win on the year, defeating Jake Wynan in a comeback victory with a score of 5-7, 6-3, 6-4. It was the rookie's career first win at the number two spot.
The Eagles return to conference play in their next match against The Citadel in Charleston, S.C. on Saturday, March 16 and return home on Monday March 18 against conference foe College of Charleston.
Jacksonville State 5, The Citadel 2
CHARLESTON, S.C. - The Citadel team tennis fell to Jacksonville State in a 5-2 decision at the Earle Tennis Center on Sunday afternoon.
The Bulldogs took the early lead by winning the doubles point with victories in the No. 1 and 3 slots. David Orces and Oliver Dedding matched up for the eighth time this season and earned their fifth win defeating Axel Sundberg and Nenad Marcec, 8-6. Odyssey Charter teammates Dillon Berkabile and JC Pauli teamed up for the first time this spring and netted in a victory over Felipe Diaz and Felipe Watanabe, 8-2.
Unable to continue the momentum from doubles, Orces was the lone Bulldog to win in singles play. The Guayaquil, Ecuador native took down Igor Santos 7-5, 6-3. Orces extended his winning streak to two matches and claimed his sixth dual victory.
The Bulldogs slip to 5-5 on the season while Jacksonville State improves to 3-9.
The Citadel will be back in action next weekend as it hosts Appalachian State on Friday at 1 p.m., and Georgia Southern on Saturday at 1 p.m., at the Earle Tennis Center.