YOUNG HARRIS, Ga. – Day one of action in the Enchanted Valley Showdown has come and past for Carson-Newman men's tennis as the Eagles finish day one with a 10-2 record overall in both singles and doubles.
In doubles action, three doubles pairings for C-N faced off with pairings from Belmont Abbey. After completing matches against the Crusaders, the three Eagles pairings would move on to face the Montevallo Falcons.
However, in singles action, all six Eagles in action would be against the Lee Flames in competition.
The Eagles swept both sides of doubles action. The pair of junior Ids Waterbolk (Bennekom, The Netherlands) and freshman Gjorgji Jankulovski (Macedonia) won their doubles match 6-4. Following suit, sophomore Lars Hordijk (Dordrecht, South Holland) and junior Marc Janse (Zeewolde, Netherlands) won 6-2 over their Crusaders opponents. In the final C-N v. BAC doubles match, freshman Marnix Van Dalen (Netherlands) and Richard Dulganov (Hungary) came out on top by a score of 6-1.
In the other three doubles matches for the Eagles against Montevallo, it would see similar success as all three matches went in favor of C-N. First, Hordijk and Janse won 7-5 over their opposition. Waterbolk and Jankulovski kept their momentum rolling as they were close to a clean sweep, winning 6-1. Finally, Van Dalen and Dulganov wrapped up a perfect 6-0 record for C-N doubles as they won their match, 6-4.
The Eagles then moved onto singles action against the Lee Flames. In number two singles, Van Dalen kept his streak hot as he won his match in number two singles, 6-4, 7-6.
Number three singles would pit Gjorgji Jankulovski against a Flames opponent as the two battles to an intense three-set thriller. After losing the first set 3-6, the Macedonia native came back and won the second set 7-5. In the final set, it would be back-and-forth for both participants as it would be the freshman Eagle fighting for every point, pulling out the 12-10 result.
Senior Rintaro Oka (Narita, Japan) made his first appearance in the Peach State as he was slotted to play number four singles. In his first action of the weekend, Oka would win over his Flames opponent by a score of 7-6, 6-2.
Ids Waterbolk would be back in action as number five singles as he would take part in a thrilling three-setter against Johnston of Lee. After dropping the first set, 2-6, Waterbolk came back to win the next two and claim the win with a 2-6, 6-3, 10-5 victory.
In number one singles, Janse would suffer a 4-6, 3-6 defeat. The final Eagle in singles action was Lars Hordijk as he was placed in number six singles. Hordijk would also suffer a loss as Lee took home a 4-6, 4-6 result to end the day for both programs.
The Eagles will be back in action as they wrap up time in Young Harris with the second day of action from the Bob & Gayle Nichols Tennis Complex on the campus of Young Harris College.
Be sure to keep up with the C-N men's tennis team all season long across Carson-Newman's social media platforms and on cneagles.com
