CLEVELAND, Tenn. – Carson-Newman's men's tennis team competes well but falls 5-2 to Lee University in the first match of a stretch on the road for the Eagles.
Coming off of a complete shutout against Virginia Wise last Sunday, the Eagles were ready heading into the match.
"I was pleased with the ways the boys competed," Coach Jim Frederick said of the men. "The opposing coach commented on how much harder we played than last year. Our doubles play still needs a lot of work, we were only two third-sets away from winning."
Despite the No. 2 team giving the Flames a run for their money, the Eagles were completely taken over in the double's competition. Finishing first at No. 3 was Marc Bantel (Urbach, Germany) and Victor Ireno (Sau Paulo, Brazil) falling to Daniel Prata and Antonio Pons of Lee 6-0. Gabriel Dabdab (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and Jesus Bacete-Sanz (Madrid, Spain) played at No. 1 for the Eagles and lost 6-4 to Jake Okines and Bruno Medeiros.
Rounding out the doubles contests and giving the most competitive match of the three were freshmen Rintaro Oka (Narita, Japan) and Hernan Toledo (Santiago, Chile) at No. 2 doubles. Despite showing fight and determination, they narrowly fell 7-6 to Jesus Garcia and Cristian Pons.
On the singles side of competition, Dabdab and Oka prevailed at the No. 1 and No. 2 positions giving the Eagles their wins of the day. Dabdab defeated Garcia 6-3, 6-1, and Oka defeated Okines 6-4, 6-3 to improve his record to 3-0 for his freshman season.
Toledo and Bacete-Sanz took their matches to three sets but were unable to finish out on top. Toledo fell at No. 3 to Prata 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 and Bacete-Sanz was defeated at No. 5 by C. Pons 6-7, 6-0, 6-3.
Bantel and Stiles played the No. 4 and No. 6 positions for the Eagles and fell to A. Pons and Medeiros. Bantel dropped both sets with the same score 6-1, 6-1 and Stiles was defeated 6-1, 6-3.
The Eagles look to come back from the 5-2 loss to the Flames as they travel to Austin Peay on Saturday to face Governors. For more updates and information check back on cneagles.com.
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