KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – As the Eagles began their last fall tournament of the 2021 season, Carson-Newman men's tennis saw the efforts of their freshman lead the way after day one of action from Tyson Park in Knoxville, Tennessee. The Eagles would face competition from Lee, Young Harris, University of Charleston, and Tusculum.
To start their action on Friday, the Eagles took to the courts in doubles action. C-N placed three doubles pairings into action on Friday, as the Eagle Invitational started the two-day event with one round of doubles and two rounds of singles action for all competitors.
"It was good to see the team get back out there as they had a couple weeks to prepare for this tournament," graduate assistant Gabriel Dabdab said. "I know we didn't perform at our highest level, but we did face some quality compeititon which helps us get better."
To get things rolling for C-N from Knoxville, the pairing of junior Ids Waterbolk (Bennekom, The Netherlands) and freshman Gjorgji Jankulovski (Macedonia) looked to continue their resounding success from the fall season thus far, as they went up against Bouman and Auslands from Young Harris. Friday morning would be all in favor of the Eagles as Waterbolk and Jankulovski won 6-3 to keep their hot streak alive.
The Eagles also saw the pairing of freshman Richard Dulganov (Hungary) and freshman Marnix Van Dalen take a walk-over loss against Ribera and McCurry from Young Harris. This was a result of Van Dalen having to be substituted for the already in place Rintaro Oka (Narita, Japan) for C-N.
The lone Eagle pairing to not come out on top Friday morning would be junior Marc Janse (Zeewolde, Netherlands) and sophomore Lars Hordijk (Dordrecht, South Holland) who faced Medeiros and Ramirez from Lee University. The Eagles could not extinguish the early Flames, as they were defeated 6-2.
"Doubles seemed to get us off to a good start, despite having to see a walk-over result in one and a tough loss in another," Carson-Newman head coach Jim Frederick said.
Carson-Newman continued their Friday slate of action as they would place six athletes in a pairo f singles matches from Tyson Park.
Freshman freshman Gjorgji Jankulovski started off his round of singles with a matchup against Lee's Medeiros. It would be C-N taking the 5-7, 6-4,10-7 result as Jankulovski would move onto the East side of the bracket for Flight B. Gjorgji Jankulovski would later see action against Rawson from the University of Charleston. Jankulvoski went on to win 7-6, 7-6 over Rawson and will now play in the Flight B finals against Tusuclum's Kondou on Saturday.
Fellow freshman Richard Dulganov would also be successful in both his singles match on Friday. To start off, he faced Stevens from the University of Charleston, winning 6-1, 7-5 and advancing to the East side of the men's flight D bracket. After winning the first of his singles matches, Dulganov continued his success with a 6-3, 3-6, 10-6 victory over Matsugama from Tusculum. Richard Dulganov will now face Dasi from Lee University in the men's final for flight D on Saturday.
The ever-competitive Ids Waterbolk (Bennekom, Netherlands) was awarded a walk-over victory in his first singles match. His second singles match on Friday took part against none other than Eldin of Tusculum. The two would go to battle fighting for a spot in the men's finals for Flight C, but Eldin came out on top 6-3, 6-2 and placed the Eagle junior into the Southeast region of the flight.
In flight D, the Eagles also saw sophomore Lars Hordijk make it to the East side of the bracket with a main draw victory. He would defeat Mensinga of Tusuclum, 6-3, 6-1. This would set up a matchup between Dasi and Hordijk, as Dasi claimed the 6-1, 6-4 victory and moved onto to the men's final of flight D.
Junior Marc Janse (Zeewolde, Netherlands) also faced a similar fate as Hordijk, winning his first singles match of the day before losing the second. In his first singles match, Janse faced Steinhouser from the University of Charleston, winning 6-2, 6-2. This moved Janse into the East side of flight A against #16 Gil Garcia of Lee University. The Flames saw their athlete take a closely competitive 6-4, 7-5 result and move onto the men's final for flight A.
"I think that since it was the start of the last tournament of the semester, they weren't really on top of their game as they have been," Dabdab said. "It could have definitely gone better, but there are always positives to take from the action."
The Eagles return to the courts of Tyson Park as they wrap up the Eagle Invitational on Saturday, starting with matches at 9:00 a.m.
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
