JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn.—The Carson-Newman men's tennis team picked up its first win of the season after dropping three-straight matches to begin the 2016 campaign as the Eagles took care of Southern Wesleyan 7-2 at the Buddy Catlett Tennis Complex Saturday afternoon.
With an entire flux of new combinations, the Eagles (1-3) stormed out of the gates taking two of the three doubles matches from the Warriors (2-5) to begin the contest.
Stefano Daza (Venezuela) linked up with regular No. 1 player Juan Sabastian Perez (Ecaudor) to take down the first-seeded duo of Camilo Sandoval and Daniel Zapata 8-1 to lead things off for Carson-Newman.
Joao Pedro Oliveira (Brazil) and Jesus Barcete (Spain) then teamed up to run the No. 2 doubles pairing. The new duo competed throughout 17 total-points, but fell 9-8 in the second pairings.
Carson-Newman was able to finish strong in doubles play by winning the third-seeded contest 8-4. The win came courtesy of Lee Presson (Crossville, Tenn.) and Kevin Mendes (Woodstock, Ga.) as the two combined efforts for their first doubles win of the season together.
"A brand new doubles lineup seemed to work out pretty well as we had very strong performances on all three courts," assistant coach Austin MacKay said following the win. "We had a good battle in No. 2 doubles, but ended up losing after not converting a couple of match points. An improvement throughout the lineup is clear and I am optimistic about what is to come with this lineup."
The Eagles would then carry the momentum on into singles play as Carson-Newman won five of six matches in the next period.
Though the home team mixed things up in doubles with various different combinations that were put on display for the first time this season, Carson-Newman kept it pretty basic in singles to help enable the 7-2 match win.
Oliveira batted in his normal leadoff position for C-N and took down Sandoval 6-2, 7-5 for the senior's second win of the season. Perez then followed suit by winning at No. 2 singles 6-1 in two-straight sets.
Daza, Mendes and Barcete would round out the scoring on the day for Carson-Newman's first win of the season.
The Venezuelan, Daza, picked up a 6-4, 6-1 win in two sets at No. 4 while Mendes and Barcete came out victories in one set 8-2 and 8-4. With the match already being decided, the Eagles' final two singles matches on Saturday were to be determined in one set.
Carson-Newman's lone loss suffered in singles play came in the fourth-seeded contest. Marc Bantel (Germany) trailed early 6-4 before exiting the match due to an undisclosed injury.
"Singles play went very well with everyone playing pretty solid," Mackay went on to say. "JP [Oliveira] had a tough fight and he came out on top. Every other singles match was in our control pretty much the entire time. Unfortunately, Marc [Bantel] injured his wrist and was unable to continue but he had the match win within his grasp. His recovery is vital for our future success."
The Eagles easily put on their best show of the season on Saturday while notching a season-high seven team points.
Carson-Newman will look to keep the winning ways alive when the squad takes on South Atlantic Conference foe Tusculum Tuesday afternoon at Mossy Creek.
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