JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. -- Carson-Newman men's tennis struggled against the North Georgia Nighthawks falling 7-0 in the Eagles' first match on their home courts.
Due to Gabriel Dabdab (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) being sick, the men's lineup was shifted around a bit. Beginning the day with doubles, the Eagles only managed to get two games off the Nighthawks in all three matches combined. At the No. 1 position, Jesus Bacete-Sanz (Madrid, Spain) and Rintaro Oka (Narita, Japan) fell to Jess Jones and Niklas Zielen 6-1. At the No. 2 spot, Marc Bantel (Urbach, Germany) and Victor Ireno (Sau Paulo, Brazil) were defeated by Ryan Gaskin and Hugues Renaud 6-0. Finishing out the doubles competition was Joseph Stiles (New Oxford, PA) and Daniel Cox (Chattanooga, Tenn.) at No. 3 falling to Tim Kiehl and Jared Bones 6-1.
The Eagles didn't have much luck on the singles side of competition either. At the No. 6 position, Cox was defeated by Kevin Candido 6-0, 6-1 and Ireno fell to Zack Waldow 6-0, 6-0 at No. 5.
Bacete-Sanz seemed to have a chance at winning his first set, but after missing a game point that would have tied the score at five all he ultimately fell to Gaskin 6-4, 6-3 at the No. 3 position.
The scores at the top of the lineup were similar. Oka played at the No. 1 position due to Dabdab being ill and fell to Jones 6-3, 6-1. Bantel was pushed up to No. 2 and was defeated by Niklas Zielen 6-1, 6-2. Finally, at the No. 4 position, Stiles finished up the day for the men falling to Renaud 6-0, 6-2.
The Eagles have roughly ten days before the start of the conference portion of their schedule. They will travel to Lincoln Memorial on March 13 to take on the Railsplitters at 2 p.m. that afternoon.
For more information and updates, check back on cneagles.com.
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