Chattanooga 5, North Alabama 2
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s tennis team scored a 5-2 victory over visiting North Alabama at the Hixson Racquet Club today. The Mocs swept doubles play and won four singles matches for their second team win of the spring.
Juniors Luke Saunders and Nick Wingord opened the match with an 8-5 win at No. 2 doubles. They improved to a team-best 5-3 in the spring. Junior John Peacey and sophomore Austin Boaz clinched the point with an 8-7 win at No. 3. They needed a 7-4 tiebreaker to defeat Miguel Garcia and Jonathan Vick. Sophomores Luke Plesky and Nic Wilson closed out the doubles sweep with an 8-6 win at No. 1.
“The doubles played as many games as possible,” observed head coach Carlos Garcia. “Every match was tight. I think we were prepared for that after the EKU match because it was a very similar doubles point there.
“I was glad to see Austin Boaz have a nice win for us. He hasn’t played in a while and he came through. It was a very good comeback for them after going down 4-7.
Plesky, Wilson, Peacey and junior Gino Delavalle all won their singles matches. Wilson had the clincher with a three-set victory (6-3, 1-6, 6-1) over Max Drupple at No. 4. Peacey’s (6-3, 4-6, 6-3) win over Taylor Ausbon at No. 6 was also a three-setter.
“All in all it was a great win and I’m impressed with North Alabama” added Garcia. “My 3-6 really came through for me today but it was a match that was quite close.”
Mercer 5, New Mexico State 2
ORLANDO, Fla. – The Mercer men's tennis team won five of its six singles matches to defeat New Mexico State, 5-2, on Saturday afternoon.
"The team showed a heck of an effort after dropping the doubles point to come back and win," said Head Coach Eric Hayes. "Winning five of six against New Mexico State in singles is tough to do. This team is starting to have a unique character; and they are starting to see a belief in each other."
Mercer went 2-1 in doubles play, losing the doubles point. New Mexico State also won the first singles match to take a 2-0 advantage.
The Bears rallied and won the final five matches to win, 5-2. Sam Philp and Anderson Scarpa both played to three sets. Philp dropped his first set and then came back to defeat Strahinja Trecakov (2-6, 6-3, 6-4) at the number one spot. Scarpa was forced to a third set, but defeated Liam Goldberg (6-4, 1-6, 6-3) at the number 3 spot.
It was Arsav Mohanty's 6-4, 7-6 (4) win over Germain Degardin that clinched the match for Mercer.
Samford 4, Lipscomb 3
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Despite trailing 3-1 and sitting just one point shy of defeat Saturday, the Samford University men's tennis team charged back behind a trio of true freshmen to knock off the Lipscomb Bison, 4-3, in a thrilling non-conference showdown held at the Samford Tennis Center.
"Today was an absolute team effort," said Samford head coach Rahim Esmail. "That was one of the better college matches that I've seen in a while. I give lots of credit to Lipscomb on the way they competed today. We were down 3-1 with all of our freshmen left and they came up huge. They showed great composure in the situation that they were in."
Lipscomb (5-3) jumped out to its 3-1 advantage by winning the doubles point and then earning singles victories on courts No. 1 and No. 2.
Samford (2-4) tallied its first victory of the evening at court No. 3 as Trey Carter outlasted the Bison's Alex Pavel, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2. With the win, Carter improved to 1-4 in singles play this season and kept the Bulldogs' hopes alive.
"Trey did a great job of coming back in his match, making a few adjustments which really made the difference," Esmail said.
Playing indoors at the state-of-the-art Samford Tennis Center, the Bulldogs would need three-consecutive victories from true freshmen Justin Ghavami, Eduardo Lourido Sanchez and Jake Faundez on the bottom three courts to rally for the improbable come-from-behind triumph.
On court No. 4, Samford's Ghavami knocked off Lipscomb's Phillipe Courteau, 7-6, 6-2, while Lourido Sanchez tallied a marathon victory over the Bison's Daniel Hernandez, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, on court No. 5.
With the overall score of the match equalized at 3-3, all eyes shifted to the No. 6 singles contest where Samford's Faundez was dueling with Lipscomb's John Tougher.
Faundez, the Bulldogs' dynamic true freshman from Perth, Australia, cruised to a 6-2 victory in the first set and then held off Tougher in the decision stanza, 7-6, to clinch the comeback win for Samford.
"Jake was able to clinch it today and I am extremely proud of him," said Esmail. "I'm also extremely proud of the rest of the team, but especially the way Jake was able to handle the adversity and continue to stick to what he does well. We need to be better in the doubles. We started very poorly on courts two and three and that hurt us. I am pleased that we were able to gut it out against a good Lipscomb team and we're looking forward to another challenge tomorrow at home versus nationally-ranked Kentucky."
With his match-clinching victory on court No. 6, Samford's Faundez improved to 3-2 in singles play this season.