Elon 6, Davidson 1
DAVIDSON, N.C. - Playing at home for just the second time in the past six matches, Davidson dropped its second Southern Conference match by falling to visting Elon, 6-1, Wednesday afternoon in a windy men's tennis match at the Covington Tennis Courts.
The Wildcats saw their overall mark fall to 8-5, while their SoCon record is an even 2-2. It's been a tough few years against Elon for the 'Cats, having dropped the last 10 meetings dating back to 2005. Three of the past four meetings were 4-3 decisions.
Elon (6-4, 2-0 SoCon) started the match by sweeping the doubles for the first team point.
The Wildcats battled in all three. The No. 1 team of Joe Schafer and Ethan Kallick fell just 8-6 to the No. 34 team in the nation in Cameron Silverman and Stefan Fortmann. The No. 2 and 3 Wildcat teams fell 8-7 and 8-2.
The lone singles winner on the afternoon was Robert Lightbourn at No. 4. The junior dropped his first set, but came back for a pair of 6-3 wins in set one and two, moving to 4-6 on the season and earning his first league win.
Schafer, fresh off being named the SoCon Player of the Week, saw his three-match win streak come to an end in a super tie-breaker defeat, 10-7. He had split his first two sets, 7-6, 6-2 with Fortmann. It's the senior's first league defeat as he fell to 8-4 overall, 3-1 in SoCon.
Dropping his first league match of the season as well was Connor Evins after a 1-6, 6-2, 6-4 loss to Brian Kowalski at No. 5 singles. Evins saw his overall record drop to 6-4.
Northern Illinois 4, Appalachian State 3
ORLANDO, Fla. - Appalachian State men's tennis stumbled against Northern Illinois State University on Wednesday afternoon, recording its seventh loss of the season in Orlando, Fla.
The Mountaineers (2-7) remained competitive against the Huskies (10-5), despite recording a loss.
Steve Lake and Steve Karendal won their match at No. 3, 8-1, but NIU clinched the doubles point for an early advantage following No. 1 and No. 2 victories from Dor Amir/Axel Lagerlof (8-6) and Max Phillips/Simon Formont (8-5).
The Mountaineers headed into singles action, where they managed to secure three victories in No.'s 3, 4, and 6 flights. Zach Bost defeated Huskies front-runner Amir in three sets (6-4, 4-6, 6-2), while Andrew McKinnon handed Jovan Zeljkovic a two-set decision (7-5, 6-2). Matt Saltsgaver rounded out the Appalachian point tally (3) with his three-set victory over Formont (6-2, 6-3, 6-4).
By afternoon's end, however, the Huskies would have the final mark after NIU's Cadieux took No. 2 flight against Karendal, 6-2, 6-0, and Phillips won No. 5 with his win over Jan-Willem Kleynhans, 7-6, 7-6.
Up next, the Mountaineers will travel to Charleston, South Carolina where they will match up against The Citadel on March 15 at 1 p.m., followed by College of Charleston on March 16 at 11 a.m.