VIDEO: Jim Frederick Interview
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman needed a win at No. 5 singles to break a match stalemate against Lincoln Memorial on Wednesday but could not have it fall its way, losing to Lincoln Memorial, 4-3, at the Buddy Catlett Tennis Complex.
Carson-Newman (5-4, 0-3 South Atlantic Conference) used back-to-back wins early in singles play to take a 2-1 lead after losing the doubles point to Lincoln Memorial (4-8, 2-0 SAC). From there, it was the Railsplitters making the most of a comeback, winning the final two singles matches of the day.
"We made some errors with the guys," Carson-Newman coach Jim Frederick said. "We were way up in a match that we should have won, which would have clinched it. We made some mental errors that cost us a game or two. I'm disappointed but it is a young team and we've just got to learn from it."
LMU took the doubles point with 6-2 wins at both the No. 1 and No. 3 spots. C-N's top pair of Hugo Castets (Gradignan, France) and Gabriel Dabdab (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) fell to Xavier Marti and Nic Gostar before Julian Froehlich (Kobenz, Austria) and Ids Waterbolk (Bennekom, Netherlands) were defeated by Fabian Sjokvist and Sebastian Colla.
Marc Janse (Zeewolde, Netherlands) and Rintaro Oka (Narita, Japan) were the only winning pair for the Orange and Blue in the opening portion of the day, taking down LMU's No. 2 pairing of Iker Moure and Jake Tuchmann, 7-5.
The match quickly turned into a 2-1 lead for C-N thanks to wins from Dabdab and Waterbolk to start singles. They both stand as the only Eagles to hold multi-match winning streaks on the season.
"[The team] didn't let the loss at doubles carry over to singles," Frederick said. "Now, it happened that, you know, the crowd got juiced up and Dabdab got juiced up. His dad is here. His dad has never been here and that got us back on track."
Dabdab extended his winning streak to four-straight with 6-1 and 6-4 victories over Colla at the No. 4 spot. The Eagles' senior is now 2-0 when playing at that position this season.
At the No. 6, Waterbolk defeated Goslar with 6-4 and 6-1 decisions, moving him to two-straight wins this year.
Oka was in a position to lock up the win for the Eagles after a 6-3 opening-set win but Moure answered with a 7-6 set to force a third. The C-N sophomore fell in that one, 6-2, tying the match at 2-2.
Janse had the final win for the Eagles in the match at the No. 3 spot, dominating Sjokvist in back-to-back 6-0 wins.
Castets fell victim to consecutive shutout frames in the No. 1 matchup with Marti, pushing the match to an even 3-3 with one flight still on the court. C-N's fifth-seeded Froehlich lost in a pair of 6-3 losses to Tuchmann to close the day.
With the loss, C-N is still winless against LMU this decade.
The Eagles are back on the courts tomorrow as they host Delta State. That match is set to begin at 1 p.m.
