SEWANEE, Tenn. – For the first time this season, Carson-Newman men's tennis will hit the road for their first true road trip as they head to Sewanee for a battle with the Tigers (0-1, 0-0 SAA) Tuesday afternoon.
"The boys were extremely close to beating North Georgia last weekend and it shows how much talent we have this year," head coach Jim Frederick said. "Saturday was a huge win for us over Union and I think last weekend showed our tough our men are and can be this year."
Carson-Newman (3-1, 0-0 SAC) comes into this week's matchups after a near perfect two match week last Friday and Saturday. The Eagles were able to dominate from start to finish when they faced off with the Young Harris Mountain Lions last Friday, winning 6-1.
Friday started off with the Eagles taking the early advantage over YHC and gaining the early 1-0 advantage after doubles. From there, every singles match victory for C-N came in a clean two-set victory as junior Ids Waterbolk (Bennekom, The Netherlands) led the charge as he would move to 3-0 in 2022 with his victory.
"We have to prove every weekend how good we are, and today the boys did it again," head coach Jim Frederick said. "With very strong doubles, we got the doubles point, and the first three singles points were just dominated from beginning to end."
Then, it would be a clean sweep for the Eagles last Saturday over the Lees-McRae Bobcats, as C-N won 7-0. The Eagles (3-1, 0-0 SAC) did not waste a second as they came out firing and took the early 1-0 advantage behind three impressive wins in doubles.
From there, the highest spotlight for C-N came when Waterbolk notched his fourth straight singles win as he and Lars Hordijk remained unblemished in 2022. Meanwhile, freshman Marnix Van Dalen notched his first win of the spring from number one singles as he and the rest of the Eagles left no doubt in the first meeting against LMC in 11 seasons.
"There were a couple matches today where we did not play our best tennis, but still came out with the win which is what counts in the end of the day," graduate coach Gabriel Dabdab said.
SCOUTING SEWANEE
The last meeting between Sewanee and Carson-Newman came in February 2019 as part of the 2018-19 season. In the last meeting, Carson-Newman's men's tennis team secured only one win in their faceoff against the College of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee falling 8-1 against the nationally-ranked Tigers. The only win of the day for the Eagles came at the No. 5 singles position by Jesus Bacete-Sanz. He won the first set fairly handily 6-3 but had to battle through the second against his opponent. Bacete-Sanz came out on top and secured the win 7-5 in the second set.
Sewanee, presently ranked 22nd in last year's ITA final DIII poll, opened their 2022 spring campaign last week against number 22 Cumberland University (Tenn.) as they dropped a 6-3 decision from the Bruton-Guerry Tennis Center. In the match, the pair of Ryan Olspl and Noah Holsclaw, ranked tenth in the region, went into a tiebreak before taking the 7-5 victory to take the point, 8-7.
Meanwhile, Quinn Wicklund picked up his first collegiate dual victory in singles with the straight-set victory at the number five spot against Daniel Wessels.
Opening serve from Sewanee is scheduled for 4:00 p.m. ET between the Eagles and Tigers Tuesday. The action will take part from the Bruton-Guerry Tennis Center.
"We have to be able to play the same way no matter the level of competition," Dabdab said. "At the same time, when the matches have been close, we have stepped up and truly proven to be the better team to get the win."
Be sure to keep up with all things Carson-Newman men's tennis at cneagles.com and on social media on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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