KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The Carson-Newman men's tennis team did something which no other team had done prior to this season: beat a DI opponent. Saturday saw the Eagles (2-2, 0-0 SAC) fight tooth-and-nail to hand Austin Peay (0-2, 0-0 OVC) their second straight loss on the year and first loss to the Eagles in three meetings. The final tally was 4-3 in favor of C-N as the men now hold a .500 record in the 2021 campaign heading into conference play next weekend.
The day started off with the Eagles garnering the valuable doubles point after Julian Froehlich (Kobenz, Austria) and Rintaro Oka (Narita, Japan) came away with a 7-5 victory. This result came after the Eagles claimed the no. 3 doubles matchup with the same score of 7-5. Sophomore Joshua Ott (Knoxville, Tenn.) was one of two Eagles on the day to win both his matches. Ott and teammate Marc Janse (Zeewolde, Netherlands) defeated their doubles opponents by a 7-5 score in the no. 3 position. The Knoxville native then continued his successful day with a 6-3, 6-0 sweep at the no. 6 singles position.
Janse was successful in his singles match coming away with the 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 three-set thriller. For the first time this season, Janse was successful from the no. 2 singles position as Oka held the no. 1 singles position during today's matchup.
The only other singles victory came from Ids Waterbolk (Bennekom, Netherlands) who sparked the Eagles with his 4-6, 6-0, 6-0 battle at the no. 3 singles position. However, Waterbolk and grad teammate Gabriel Dabdab (Rio de Janiero, Brazil) could not start their day off with the win at no. 1 doubles, falling 1-6.
The Eagles return to action this upcoming Wednesday, Feb. 24, when they travel to Cleveland, Tennessee for a matchup with the Lee Flames. The first serve is set for 2 p.m. from Cleveland.
Be sure to keep up with all things Carson-Newman tennis at cneagles.com and on all social media.
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