DAHLONEGA, Ga. – Following over a week without outside competition, the first road match for Carson-Newman did not prove to be friendly as the Eagles were swept by No. 18 North Georgia team, 9-0, on Sunday afternoon.
The loss boosts the Nighthawks to eight consecutive victories over C-N since 2010. This was also the first occasion in which the Eagles were swept by the Nighthawks (4-0) since 2015.
Carson-Newman (0-2) fell into a tough 3-0 deficit early on, losing all of the doubles matches. The Nighthawks' duo of Zack Waldow and Kevin Candido cruised to an 8-2 win to open at the No. 2 doubles position over Marc Bantel (Urbach, Germany) and Taylor Barie (Woodstock, Ga.).
The top doubles position was a closer match as Gabriel Dabdab (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and Rodolfo Schwarz (Brazil) fell 8-5 to Niklas Zielen and Carl Bedrot. The No. 3 face-off was even closer with Jesus Bacete-Sanz (Madrid, Spain) and Kevin Mendes (Chattanooga, Tenn.) falling short by just two points, 8-6.
The Nighthawks kept their foot on the throttle in singles action as Zielen opened with a straight-set victory over Bantel at the No. 2 spot, 6-1, 6-0. Similarly, the three-seed match of Waldow and Schwarz also went to straight sets with Waldow holding the advantage, 6-4, 6-1.
Bedrot fought off a battling Mendes at the No. 4 spot in the first set, taking a 6-4 advantage. The second set was not as close as Bedrot took a commanding 6-2 win to put the Nighthawks up 6-0.
The No. 3 spot saw the only match to be taken to a tiebreaker. Kiehl opened the trio of sets with a 6-3 victory that was followed by a second-set win for Dabdab, 6-2. Dabdab fought back in the third set but was not able to overcome Kiehl, losing the set 10-7.
North Georgia dominated through the fifth and sixth spots. Bones won in straight sets, 6-2 and 6-3, over Barie while Candido was victorious over Bacete-Sanz, 6-1, 6-4, respectively.
The Eagles now prepare for back-to-back days of matches early in the week, the first coming on Tuesday as the team travels to Athens, Tenn. to take on an NAIA opponent in the Bulldogs of Tennessee Wesleyan. That match will begin at 1:30 p.m. at the Tennessee Wesleyan tennis facility.
