JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn.— The Carson-Newman men's tennis team picked up its second South Atlantic Conference victory in as many days as the Eagles held off a surging Lenoir-Rhyne club 5-4 to garner its third win of the season Wednesday afternoon..
"It was a tough match that went down to the wire with the winner of the No. 6 singles match to decide the overall team winner," coach Jean Love said following the win. "Jesus [Barcete] was able to win in three sets to clinch the team win for the Eagles."
Jesus Barcete's (Spain) match-clinching win in the final match of the contest came over the Bear's Matthew Ledford 6-0, 1-6 and 6-0.
Before the freshman heroics, Carson-Newman began the day by taking two of three doubles matches in the opening segment of play.
Aside from Stefano Daza (Venezuela) and Juan Sabastian Perez's tiebreaking loss of 9-8 in the first-seeded doubles match, the Eagles' other two pairings of Joao Pedro Oliveira (Brazil) and Barcete at No. 2, and Lee Presson (Crossville, Tenn.) and Kevin Mendes (Woodstock, Ga.) in the third contest tallied two quick points for Carson-Newman.
Oliveira and Barcete downed a pair of Bears 9-7 while Presson and Mendes cruised to an 8-4 win over Tomas Hons and Alex Cresponsanchez.
"Doubles started us off in the right direction with wins at No. 2 and 3 doubles. Lee and Kevin played a real strong match to take No. 3 doubles, while JP and Jesus at No. 2 fought hard to 9-7," Loved said. "The No. 1 doubles went to a tiebreak. Juan and Stefano had three match points before finally losing the tiebreak."
Marc Bantel (Germany) kicked things off for the Eagles in singles play with the 6-2, 6-3 win in the fourth-seeded contest while Oliveira handled Patrick Bauer 6-2 in two sets at No. 1 to give the Eagles four total points.
Carson-Newman would then drop three-in-a-row to set up the thrilling match-six victory.
Perez battled in the No. 2 spot before falling 7-6, 6-4 to Tomas Hons, while Daza also came up short in two straight sets, 7-6, 6-3, in the third-round of matches. Mendes then took Alex Cresposanchez on at No. 5 before giving way in the 6-3, 6-1 loss.
"In singles, wins by Marc at No. 4 and J.P. at No. 1 gave us four team points with only four singles matches left on the court. Juan at No. 2 singles and Stefano at No. 3 singles lost really hard fought matches," Love said. "Then Kevin in the fifth match went down in straight sets to set up the last match of the day at No. 6 singles.
"The guys just fought really hard and believed that somehow they could get this done. It was a special win for the guys."
Carson-Newman will hit the courts again this weekend with another pair of home matches at the Buddy Catlett Tennis Complex. The Eagles will welcome Bellarmine on Friday for a 2:00 p.m. serve time and Wingate on Saturday for an 11:00 a.m. showdown.
A complete recap following each day of events can be found on cneagles.com following the match.
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