ATHENS, Tenn. – Struggles in doubles play caused the Carson-Newman men's tennis team to fall into a deep deficit early on that it could not battle back from as the Eagles fell to Tennessee Wesleyan, 8-1, on Tuesday afternoon.
The loss marks the fifth straight to the Bulldogs since 2013.
"We played well in spurts in doubles play, but we did not play big points all that well," head coach Jean Love said. "We didn't have a lot of success in singles, but we competed well in good matches."
Carson-Newman (0-3) lost all three doubles matches to start the day. The opening match featured the Bulldog's No. 2 duo of Sergio Lapaz and Maurico Muniz taking an 8-3 victory over Marc Bantel (Urbach, Germany) and Taylor Barie (Woodstock, Ga.).
The No. 1 and No. 3 spots saw closer matches. The top-seeded face-off of Gabriel Dabdab (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and Rodolfo Schwarz (Brazil) against Federico Staksrud and Borja Perez saw TWU taking the 8-4 advantage. The third-seeded team of Jesus Bacete-Sanz (Madrid, Spain) and Kevin Mendes (Chattanooga, Tenn.) fell to Caio Bardauil and Andre Kaloussieh, 8-5.
Tennessee Wesleyan (2-0) kept its momentum going in the singles matches, but C-N was able to take a win away from the Bulldogs in the process.
Top-seeded Staksrud defeated Dabdab to open singles play in back-to-back 6-3 sets.
The Eagles only win on the day came at the No. 2 slot as Bantel took a pair of 6-1 sets to cut the Bulldog lead to 4-1.
After Bantel's win, Tennessee Wesleyan took back its control of the match and kept it there.
The No. 4 match of Bardauil and Mendes was called early due to an injury to Mendes. The score at the retirement was 2-1 in favor of the Bulldogs.
Schwarz took the first set in his third-seeded match against Paredes with a score of 7-6, but Paredes battled back with straight-set victories, 6-1 and 6-0.
Tormen's fifth-spot win over Barie came in a pair of 6-3 sets before a battle at the No. 6 spot ended the day in thrilling fashion.
The six-seeded match started with a 6-3 win by Muniz before Bacete-Sanz notched a 6-3 win of his own to send the match into a third-set tiebreaker. Muniz ended up reigning victorious in the match with a 10-8 decision in the final set.
"I liked the play, heart and competition that I saw from the team today," Love mentioned. "We just need to learn to take advantage of those big points and be more tactical with our playing and points."
The Eagles return home on Wednesday still searching for a victory as they play host to the Flames of Lee. That match is slated to begin at 1:30 p.m. at the Buddy Catlett Tennis Complex.
