UNCG 5, Davidson 2
DAVIDSON, N.C. — Looking to close out its home slate of games on a winning note and give their seniors a final home win, Davidson came up short in its bid as the ‘Cats fell 5-2 to visiting UNCG on Sunday afternoon in Southern Conference action at the Covington Tennis Courts.
The Wildcats (10-8, 4-5 SoCon) honored their three seniors, Joe Schafer, Chris Mark and Kevin Moore, prior to the match, and Schafer and Mark nearly helped the ‘Cats score the win.
The duo won both their singles matches, rolling to wins at No. 1 and 3 slots. Schafer hit the 10-win mark for the fourth straight year with a solid 7-5, 6-2 triumph at the top spot. The senior has 42 career wins.
He and Ethan Kallick came very close to giving the Wildcats the doubles point, pushing their match at No. 2 to a tie-breaker before seeing UNCG (13-2, 6-2 SoCon) win it 9-8.
Mark moved to 7-8 on the season, winning his fifth SoCon match by the score of 6-4, 6-1 at No. 3 over Gaston Murray. He earned his 34th career singles win.
Fellow doubles partner and classmate Kevin Moore also played in his final home match. He and Mark were defeated at No. 1 doubles 8-3, dropping them to 8-9 on the season. The duo are 7-5 overall at the top doubles spot.
Georgia Southern 4, Elon 3
ELON, N.C. – The Elon University men’s tennis team suffered its first Southern Conference setback of the season on Sunday, April 7, after dropping a hard-fought 4-3 match to the Georgia Southern Eagles at the Jimmy Powell Tennis Center.
Elon (14-6, 7-1 Southern Conference) and Georgia Southern (9-7, 5-3 Southern Conference) battled to a 3-all tie with only Stefan Fortmann and Andrew Dromsky remaining at No. 1 singles. Following a 6-4 loss in the first set, Fortmann, playing for 45th-ranked Cameron Silverman at Elon’s top spot, captured a 7-6 (10-5) win in the second set to force a third and final set. But Dromsky managed to hold off Fortmann in the third, winning 6-2 to give the Eagles the victory.
The Phoenix jumped out to an early 1-0 lead after sweeping all three doubles matches. The 34th-ranked tandem of Silverman and Fortmann handed Oliver Webb and Matthijs Verdam an 8-5 loss at No. 1 for their ninth straight win. Brian Kowalski and Robert Lindgren won 8-2 over Dromsky and Rayane Djouad, while Jordan Kaufman and Juan Madrid claimed an 8-2 win at No. 3 against Kyle Hoffman and Alex Doherty.
Kaufman was impressive in singles action at No. 3, claiming a quick 6-0, 6-2, win against A. Codina Sala to give Elon a 2-0 lead.
Madrid was the next to finish for the maroon and gold, topping Hoffman, 6-3, 6-2, at No. 5 to push the Phoenix out to a 3-0 advantage.
But the Eagles came back, winning three hard-fought three-set matches at No. 6, 4 and 2 to tie the match at 3-all.
Fortmann nearly staved off the Eagles’ Dromsky at No. 1, but the reigning Southern Conference Player of the Month could not manage a third-set comeback.
Furman 4, Samford 3
GREENVILLE, S.C. – The Samford University men’s tennis team suffered its first Southern Conference defeat in nearly two weeks Sunday as the Bulldogs had their four-match winning streak come to an end in a hard-fought 4-3 setback against the Furman Paladins held at Mickel Tennis Center.
With Sunday’s loss, Samford (11-8, 6-2 SoCon) suffered its first defeat since March 24 when the Bulldogs dropped a 5-2 decision against Elon. In road matches this season, Samford owns a 4-6 record.
Furman (7-12, 4-4 SoCon) won the doubles point Sunday, which proved to be critical factor in the outcome of the match.
The Bulldogs’ doubles tandem comprised of Alex Sajonz and Fares Kilani cruised to an 8-3 victory over the Paladins’ pairing of Jacob Behal and Tyler Droll on court No. 3, but Furman then rallied to take wins on courts No. 1 and No. 2, respectively.
In the No. 2 doubles contest, the Paladins’ duo of Alex Christ and Matt Browne earned the clinching victory by holding off Samford’s Elliot Barnwell and Austin Akers, 9-7.
Despite losing the all-important doubles point Sunday, the Bulldogs bounced back with two quick straight-set triumphs in singles play to garner a 2-1 lead in the match.
Samford’s Barnwell posted the first victory of the singles competition with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Christ on court No. 2, while Sajonz reeled off a 6-1, 7-6 triumph over Furman’s Joel Cook in the No. 4 singles contest. With their respective victories, Barnwell improved to 12-7 in singles play and Sajonz moved to 11-8 this season.
Following the Bulldogs’ wins from Barnwell and Sajonz, the teams traded singles points on courts No. 5 and No. 3 to give Samford a 3-2 road advantage.
Kilani, the Bulldogs’ true freshman from Tunis, Tunisia, tallied Samford’s triumph with a 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory over Furman’s Browne on court No. 3. With the win, Kilani improved to 13-6 in dual-match play this season.
The Bulldogs held their 3-2 advantage over the Paladins briefly on Sunday, but Furman was leading in both of the last two three-set contest on courts No. 1 and No. 6. In the end, despite valiant attempts from Samford’s Zac Dunkle and Garrison Laduca, the Paladins were victorious on both courts and tallied the 4-3 come-from-behind team win.
Chattanooga 5, The Citadel 2
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn., - Charleston natives, Jackson Pride and Elliott Sperr, each earn individual victories as The Citadel tennis team fell to Chattanooga in a 5-2 decision Sunday afternoon at the UTC Tennis Courts.
The Bulldogs drop to 7-12 overall and 0-9 in the Southern Conference and the Mocs improve to 10-8 overall and 5-4 in league play.
The duo of David Orces and Oliver Dedding defeated Ankit Chopra and Roberto Vieira 8-6, but the Mocs took the doubles point winning in the No. 2 and 3 positions. The Bulldog tandem picked up their 10th win as a pair and improved their SoCon record to 3-5.
In the No. 5 slot Elliott Sperr defeated John Peacey in a three-set battle. Sperr took the early lead with a 6-2 win in the first set, but fell 6-2 in the second. The Bulldog junior would take the third set 6-3 to earn a point for The Citadel.
Jackson Pride earned his first conference victory with a win over Luke Saunders 6-2, 6-2.
East Carolina 4, College of Charleston 3
GREENVILLE, N.C. – The College of Charleston men’s tennis team dropped its second 4-3 match in a row this afternoon at the River Birch Tennis Center in Greenville, N.C.
The loss drops the Cougars’ overall record to 10-8, while they remain 5-3 in the SoCon. With the win, East Carolina moves to 15-3 with an 11-1 mark at home.
The Pirates started off strong by winning two of the three doubles. However, the Cougar duo of sophomore Charlie Ghriskey and junior Brice Allanic led their match 7-6 on Court 1 when time was called.
Singles was a long affair as all but one of the matches went to three sets. Sophomore Sebastian Lopez and freshman Zack Lewis both pulled off three-set comebacks.
Lopez dropped his first set 2-6 before responding with 6-3 and 6-1 set victories to beat Nicolas Soriano of East Carolina at the No. 2 line.
Lewis lost his first set 3-6 but came back with 6-1 and 7-5 wins to claim a victory over Mario Martinez at No. 5.
Senior Billy Kenny rounded things out for CofC when he warded off a comeback from Colin Roller of the Pirates to win 6-1, 3-6, 6-2 on Court 6.
“The Pirates deserve a lot of credit for their win today,” CofC Head Coach Jay Bruner said. “On the bright side, we fought well in singles and had good energy in doubles with some new combinations. However, we didn’t finish our first sets well, which probably shifted the momentum in ECU’s favor. We managed to claw back into the match and we had an opportunity to take the win but we couldn’t quite capitalize on it. We’re going to need to train hard these next three days to be ready to close out the season.”
The team will come back to Charleston and have three days of practice before resuming Southern Conference play against Wofford on Thursday, April 11 at 2:30 p.m. (ET) at Patriots Point.