JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn.—The Carson-Newman men's tennis team picked up its fifth win of the season Wednesday afternoon at the Buddy Catlett Tennis Complex as the Eagles took down North Greenville 7-2 in non-conference play.
C-N (5-6) began the afternoon in swift fashion with a sweep over the Crusaders (3-5) in doubles play.
Stefano Daza (Venezuela) linked up with Juan Sebastian Perez (Ecuador) to kick things off for the Eagles with a 9-7 win at No. 1. Joao Pedro Oliveira (Brazil) and Jesus Barcete (Spain) followed suit with an 8-3 win in the second-seeded contest, while Lee Presson (Crossville, Tenn.) and Kevin Mendes (Woodstock, Ga.) completed doubles play with the 8-6 win in the third round.
"We got off to a great start in doubles by sweeping the round," coach Jean Love said following the win. "J.P. and Jesus were first off the court at No. 2 doubles as they really played well and just took the opponents out of it early and often. The No. 3 doubles team of Kevin and Lee went up 7-4 before holding on to win 8-6. Then Juan and Stefano came through with a big win at No. 1 doubles 9-7. This gave us a lot of momentum heading into singles."
The Eagles would continue to ride momentum on into singles play by taking four of the six matches in the round of action.
The lone losses in singles play came from Oliveira's 6-2, 6-3 loss at No. 1 and Daza'a 4-6, 5-4 and 10-8 third set tie-breaking loss in the fourth-seeded contest.
Perez was a winner in the second round of action by converting on a three set match 4-6, 6-1 and 7-5, while Marc Bantel (Germany) won his fourth-seeded contest 6-4, 6-1 in two sets a court over.
Mendes took down Marcelo Ysjikawa 6-3, 6-4 at No. 5 and Barcete ended the day for Carson-Newman with a 6-2 win in two sets in the sixth and final match of the day.
"Marc Bantel at No. 4 singles came back from a first set deficit of 0-3 to win the set 6-4 and then quickly won the second set 6-1 to give us our first singles point," Love said. "Then we clinched the team victory at No. 2 singles as Juan won a thrilling three setter 4-6, 6-1, 7-5. Juan has played some good singles and doubles in the last few matches and it is good to see him embrace the battle. Our other singles victories came from Kevin at No. 5 and Jesus at No. 6."
Carson-Newman will hit the courts and South Atlantic Conference action again on Friday as the Eagles travel to Anderson for a 2:00 p.m. start time.
A full recap following the match between the eagles and the Trojans can be found at cneagles.com at the conclusion of the contest.
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