JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman men's tennis (5-7, 3-3 SAC) have battled hard in every match this year and Sunday was no different. In a beautiful Sunday matinee, C-N dominated and maintained a lead from start to finish over the Newberry Wolves, claiming a 6-1 team win.
Almost as similar as their female counterparts, the men saw two out of the three doubles matches fall their way. Only grad student Gabriel Dabdab (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and sophomore Ids Waterbolk (Bennekom, Netherlands) could not claim victory as they fell in a tight 7-6 decision.
The pair was picked up by their teammates though as C-N claimed the valuable doubles point heading into singles action. Junior Rintaro Oka (Narita, Japan) and sophomore Marc Janse (Zeewolde, Netherlands) moved to 3-1 as a pair in the 2021 season after walking away with the 6-3 victory. They were soon followed up by sophomore Joshua Ott (Knoxville, Tenn.) and grad student Julian Froehlich (Kobenz, Austria) who almost swept their opponents with a 6-1 result.
Singles action was hot and dominant by C-N as well. Only one Eagle saw defeat in singles, as the Eagles claimed five victories with only one of those going to three sets. Janse leads the team overall with an 8-4 record in 2021. He was in the number two singles spot where he holds a 2021 record of 7-2. Sunday marked his seventh win after taking the only three-set result of the night by a score of 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 over Newberry.
In other singles action, Oka moved to 4-8 overall but 2-1 as the number one singles player. He has seen matches go either way in the past, but he left absolutely no doubt on Sunday as he swept the match by scores of 6-2, 7-5. He now will look to move his win streak to two on Wednesday when the Eagles are back in action.
Waterbolk has had to be the hero for C-N in previous close matches, so he was glad to see Sunday not come down to the wire. He is now sitting at 6-6 on the year as he was very consistent and took his match by 6-3, 6-3 scores in both sets. Waterbolk is now third on the team in overall singles record behind Dabdab and Janse.
Froehlich has stayed as a spark to the Eagles throughout this unusual season and hopes to make this last year as an Eagle as memorable as possible. He is close to hitting .500 on the year in singles as he currently sits at 5-7 overall. Sunday helped improve his record with a 6-0, 6-0 domination over his Wolves opposition.
The final Eagle who saw victory on Sunday was someone who has struggled to see the result very often, as Ott gained his third singles win on the season and his first-ever SAC win on the year. Ott has played at number six singles all season, so he typically is one of the matches that starts off for C-N when singles takes place.
However, the lone Eagle to see defeat was Gabriel Dabdab who saw his SAC record move to 4-2 on the year and his overall record drop to 7-5. He went to all three sets against his Wolves opponent, but could not find enough results as he fell 3-6, 6-3, 3-6 in the end.
Carson-Newman wraps up a three-match home tenure with the Mars Hill Lions paying the Buddy Catlett Tennis Complex a visit on Wednesday. This will also be Senior Day for Price, Reis, and Alisa Liashova (Yaroslavl, Russia). First serve is set for 2:00 p.m. from Jefferson City.
Be sure to keep up with all things Carson-Newman women's tennis via cneagles.com and all social media accounts.
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