Georgia Southern 4, Wofford 3
SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The Wofford men’s tennis team was tied up at three with only one singles match to play, but fell to the Georgia Southern Eagles, 4-3, in its Southern Conference opener at the John E. Reeves Tennis Center.
The loss puts the Terriers at 5-6 overall and 0-1 in the Southern Conference. The Eagles improve to 2-8 overall and 1-0 in the Southern Conference with the win.
Wofford took the early, 1-0, advantage sweeping the doubles point. The third doubles pair of junior Jackson Keith and sophomore David Sklar won the first doubles match, 8-3, against Kyle Hoffman and Rafael Racy. The No. 2 doubles duo of junior Walker Heffron and freshman Haris Poric defeated Oliver Webb and Christian Kerrigan, 8-3 to clinch the point. In the top match, junior Rob Galloway and freshman Trevor Gotkowski finished off the sweep winning, 8-7 (7-5).
In singles play, Gotkowski continued his great play as he extended Wofford’s lead, 2-0, at the No. 5 position beating Nico DeGroof, 6-0, 6-1. Georgia Southern would then tie up the match at, 2-2, winning the No. 4 and No. 1 positions. The Eagles then took a, 3-2, lead as Racy won the No. 6 singles match, 6-4, 6-4.
Poric then tied the match up once again winning the second singles match, 6-3, 6-3, against Albert Codina Sala, knotting up the score, 3-3. The final point of the match came down to the No. 3 matchup between Heffron and Hoffman. After falling in the first set 6-3, Heffron battled back winning the second set 6-3, but fell in the third set 6-4.
Appalachian State 4, Samford 3
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- In a hotly-contested Southern Conference opener held at the Samford Tennis Center Sunday, the Samford University men’s tennis team suffered a 4-3 loss to the Appalachian State Mountaineers in an early-season battle that came down to the final singles court.
With Sunday’s loss, Samford (2-6, 0-1 SoCon) moved to 2-3 when playing at home this season, while Appalachian State (4-2, 1-0 SoCon) extended its winning streak to two-consecutive matches. Last weekend, the Mountaineers suffered a 4-2 setback at Coastal Carolina before topping Richmond by a 4-3 score on a neutral court.
This season’s conference-opening contest proved to be eerily similar to last year’s battle with the road squad earning a hard-fought 4-3 win. In 2013, Samford traveled to Boone, N.C., and tallied a thrilling 4-3 SoCon triumph.
The Bulldogs came up short in Sunday’s all-important doubles point as Appalachian State notched an early 1-0 advantage in the match.
Samford’s doubles combination of Austin Akers and Fares Kilani reeled off an 8-5 victory on court No. 3, but the Mountaineers were able to hang on to victories on courts No. 1 and No. 2 by respective scores of 8-5 and 8-2.
With its win, the Bulldogs’ tandem of Akers and Kilani improved to 5-2 in doubles play this season.
Despite dropping Sunday’s doubles point, Samford bounced back in singles play and received quick straight-set triumphs from Elliot Barnwell, Kilani and Liam Sullivan. With his solid 6-4, 6-1 victory on court No. 1, the Bulldogs’ Barnwell improved his overall dual-match record to 5-3 this season.
Following Samford’s early resurgence in singles play, the Bulldogs battled back to even the score of the match at 3-3, as all eyes turned to court No. 4 and a battle between Carter and Appalachian State’s Zach Bost.
In the decisive match of Sunday’s contest, the Mountaineers’ Bost was able to outlast Carter for a 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-4 marathon win as Appalachian State posted its 4-3 team victory.
Following Sunday’s singles results, Samford’s Kilani improved to 4-4 in dual-match play, while Sullivan and Akers both moved to 3-4. The Bulldogs’ Carter and Moore and now 2-6 and 1-7 this spring, respectively.
UNCG 7, Chattanooga 0
GREENSBORO, N.C. – The UNCG men’s tennis team swept Chattanooga, 7-0, Sunday afternoon at the UNCG Tennis Courts.
The Spartans improve to 6-2 on the season, winning six-straight matches and five of them by a 7-0 score. UNCG also is 1-0 in Southern Conference play with the win against the Mocs.
UNCG took a 1-0 lead after winning two of the three doubles matches against the Mocs. At No. 1 doubles, sophomore James Dougherty and junior Randy Phillips defeated John Peacey and Jorge Varon, 8-4. Chattanooga won a close tiebreaker at No. 3 doubles as Derrick Brown and Austin Boaz took down
freshman Nazhone Wilkins and sophomore Gaston Murray, 8-7 (7-5).
In the final doubles match, sophomore Daniel Mack and senior Ahmet Sarioglu outlasted Gino Gdelavalle/Pavels Grigorjevs, 8-7 (7-4) in the tiebreaker to clinch the doubles point.
In singles, Mack dominated Boaz, 6-0, 6-0 at No. 5 singles to make it 2-0 UNCG. Junior Cameron Smith gave UNCG a 3-0 lead after defeating Brown, 6-1, 6-1.
Dougherty clinched the match with a 6-2, 6-0 win against Grigorjevs at No. 2 singles. Sarioglu defeated Varon at No. 1 singles, 6-0, 6-3.
At No. 3 singles, Phillips won in straight sets against Delavalle, 6-4, 6-3 to push the Spartans lead to 6-0.
In the final match, Murray won a tight first set tiebreaker 7-6 (8-6) and cruised in the second set, 6-1 to complete the sweep against Peacey at No. 4 singles.
USC Upstate 7, Davidson 0
SPARTANBURG, S.C. — The Davidson men’s tennis team continued on it season-long road trip Sunday, falling 7-0 to host USC-Upstate at the Upstate Tennis Complex in non-conference action.
Playing the Spartans (4-8) for the first time since 2011, the Wildcats (2-8) were unable to pull through in dropping all six of its singles matches as well as a pair of doubles matches.
The duo of Ethan Kallick and J.B. Gough saw their two-match personal win streaks in singles play come to a halt. Kallick, playing at No. 3 for the third time this year, suffered a 6-2, 6-3 setback to Gonzalo Blanco. The senior fell to 2-4 on the season.
The first-year Gough, who two matches ago vs. George Mason scored the winning team point in a third-set tie-breaker, fell to 2-3 on the year with a 6-0, 6-2 defeat at No. 5 singles.
Evan Watkins pushed his singles match to a super tie-breaker after the overall match had been decided and came out on the wrong end of a 10-3 decision. He had split his first two sets, 3-6, 6-4, to force the super tie-breaker.
Falling in a second-set tie-breaker was Robert Lightbourn at No. 2 singles after he fell in his first set 6-1.
Davidson, 1-2 so far on its season-long seven-match road trip, next plays at Flagler College in St. Augustine, Fla., March 4 at 2 p.m.