NEWBERRY, S.C. – A win in the final doubles match of the day was not enough to put momentum on the side of Carson-Newman as the Eagles fell to Newberry in their first South Atlantic Conference road match of the season, 8-1, on Friday afternoon at the Oakland Tennis Center.
The loss moves Carson-Newman (2-6, 0-2 SAC) extends Newberry's series lead to 7-2 since the start of the decade and places the Eagles on a two-match losing streak.
All three doubles matches included tiebreakers, but Newberry (13-4, 2-1 SAC) was still able to come out of the early portion with an early 2-1 lead that started with a win at the No. 3 position as Marc Batel (Germany) and Taylor Barie (Woodstock, Ga.) fell 8-7 to Pepe Navarro and Alex Amble.
The top-seeded matchup saw Rodolfo Schwarz (Brazil) and Kevin Mendes (Chattanooga, Tenn.) fall in an 8-7 deficit to Edison Ambarzumjan and Jordan Monosky.
C-N's lone victory of the day came at the No. 2 position as Gabriel Dabdab (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and Jesus Bacete-Sanz (Madrid, Spain) took an 8-7 win of their own, winning the match on the fifth point against Nikhil Mannepalli and Angel Pizarro.
Singles play opened with a straight-set loss at the No. 2 spot for Schwarz, falling to Navarro, 6-3 and 6-1.
The third-seeded position featured a matchup between Bantel and Mannepalls. Bantel fell in the first set 6-3 before battling back in the second set to set it into a tiebreaker. Mannepalls was too much to handle in the tiebreaker of the second set as Bantel was defeated 7-6, losing at the fifth point.
In the top-seeded match, Dabdab took a 7-5 first set victory before Ambarzumjan's 6-2 second set advantage sent the match into a third set tiebreaker. The final set fell in favor of Ambarzumjan with a 6-3 win, cementing the win for the Wolves as they took a 5-1 lead.
Barie fell in a pair of 6-2 sets to Pizarro at the fourth spot before Joseph Stiles (New Oxford, PA) loss in an 8-7 decision to Amble in the sixth-seed match.
The final match of the day featured the No. 5 face-off between Bacete-Sanz and Monosky with Newberry getting the advantage as Monosky won in straight-sets, 6-0 and 6-3.
The Eagles return to the banks of Mossy Creek on Saturday to close out three-straight days of conference play as No. 24 Wingate comes to town. First serve is set for 2 p.m. at the Buddy Catlett Tennis Complex.
