CLEVELAND, Tenn.— The Carson-Newman men's tennis team stumbled Friday evening on a road conquest to Lee as the Flames defeated the Eagles 5-4 in non-conference play.
The Eagles (6-11) competed in their first match in back-to-back days with Lee (11-9) Friday afternoon before heading to Queens Saturday to resume South Atlantic Conference play.
"Although we didn't get the outcome we wanted, I am proud of the effort. We are just a few points here or there from winning," coach Jean Love said following the match. "All the doubles matches were tightly contested. Stefano [Daza] and Juan [Perez] started us off right with a win at No. 1 doubles. We lost a tough tiebreaker at No. 3 doubles as it was decided by one break of serve."
The day begin on a good note for Carson-Newman with Stefano Daza (Venezuela) and Juan Sebastian Perez (Ecuador) picking up a 9-7 win atop the doubles lineup for the Eagles.
Things then began to spiral downward as Joao Pedro Oliveira (Brazil) and Jesus Barcete-Sanz (Madrid, Spain) fell 8-5 at No. 2 and Lee Presson (Crossville, Tenn.) and Kevin Mendes (Woodstock, Ga.) lost 9-8 (2) in the third doubles contest.
Carson-Newman would then make the transition into singles play with an early deficit of 2-1.
"In singles, Juan won an awesome match in three sets. He came back from two service breaks down to pull out the second set. He then pulled out the third by breaking serve and then holding serve to close the match," Love said. "J.P. lost a tough match at No. 1 singles. Only one service break decided each set. Kevin and Jesus won their matches in third-set tie breakers to close out the 5-4 team loss."
Perez kicked things off in the second round of action for Carson-Newman with a hard-fought 1-6, 7-6 (5) and 6-4 three-set win in the second-seeded contest.
Oliveira would then fall 6-4, 7-5 at No. 1 as Daza and Bantel followed suite with 6-3, 6-2 and 6-3, 6-1 losses at No. 3 and 4 singles.
Though the match was already decided, the Eagles never let up and won the final two contests on the day.
Mendes strung together a solid effoert in the fifth-seeded match to win 6-3, 4-6 and 12-10 in three sets while Barcete-Sanz capped off the day with another three-set win, 6-4, 0-6 and 10-8 at No. 6.
Carson-Newman will be back in action Saturday afternoon for a SAC matchup at Queens beginning at 2:00 p.m.
-CN-
