JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – After wrapping up a successful opening weekend for spring 2022, Carson-Newman men's tennis is back in action Friday and Saturday as they look to build upon their early start. The Eagles will take on the Young Harris Mountain Lions from the LMU Tennis Complex Friday afternoon before heading back to Knoxville to face the Lees-McRae Bobcats on Saturday.
"The boys were extremely close to beating North Georgia last weekend and it shows how much talent we have this year," head coach Jim Frederick said. "Saturday was a huge win for us over Union and I think last weekend showed our tough our men are and can be this year."
Carson-Newman (1-1, 0-0 SAC) comes into this week's matchups after a strong start to 2022 last weekend in Knoxville. The Eagles started off the spring with a resounding 5-2 team victory over the Union College (Ky.) Bulldogs on Saturday, who came in ranked no. 9 in the latest NAIA poll. The Eagles got off to a fast start after winning doubles thanks to wins by the pairings of Marnix Van Dalen (Netherlands) and Rintaro Oka (Narita, Japan), followed up with the deciding victory from Ids Waterbolk and Gjorgji Jankulovski.
Jankulovski kept his spring rolling as he would take home a singles victory to make it 2-0 in favor of C-N Saturday. The freshman was joined in singles victory by Marc Janse, who took home a huge win in number two singles; Ids Waterbolk who clinched the match for C-N with a victory in number six singles, and finally Lars Hordijk who rallied off the fifth point for C-N from number five singles.
However, Sunday was a little different story for the Eagles as they faced nationally-ranked and Division II powerhouse, North Georgia. Although the Eagles fought for every point imaginable, it would be UNG taking the slim 4-3 victory and handing C-N their first loss of the spring. There were some bright spots against the Nighthawks, including a sensational effort from Ids Waterbolk for the second straight day.
"Boys were very close to getting the doubles point. They held a couple match points and number three doubles were much closer to break their opponent's serve than the other way around," graduate coach Gabriel Dabdab said.
Waterbolk and his doubles teammate, Jankulovski, were the lone Eagles pairing to win over the Nighthawks as they upset the number 20 doubles pairing in DII men's tennis from UNG. Then, the Netherlands native made a huge statement in singles as he won from the number six singles position. This singles win not only got Waterbolk his second straight victory of 2022, but secured C-N's first game point against the Nighthawks in five seasons (2017).
SCOUTING YOUNG HARRIS
The Eagles and Mountain Lions squared off against each other last March, which turned out to be a huge response game for C-N to stay on track during the 2020-21 season. One day after seeing defeat and a sweep by North Georgia, Carson-Newman men's tennis came back strong as they were victors over the Mountain Lions of Young Harris College by a close 4-3 margin.
It would be Ids Waterbolk pushing the C-N charge in singles as he claimed the deciding point in singles, winning 7-5, 7-6 from number three singles.
"Guys won another close one," Jim Frederick said. "Very proud of the way they fight and Ids again won the deciding match for us."
Young Harris opened up their 2022 spring campaign last weekend with a dominat 7-0 sweep over Piedmont University from the Bob & Gayle Nichols Tennis Complex. With the win, the Mountain Lions move to 2-0 this season ahead of hitting the road to take on C-N.
YHC took a 1-0 lead over Piedmont after sweeping all three doubles matches. The team would go on and claim all six singles matches, dropping only 10 games across all six results.
SCOUTING LEES-MCRAE
Carson-Newman has not gone one-on-one with the Bobcats of Lees-McRae in over a decade as the two programs have only met one previous time, coming in March 2011. On that day, it would be the visiting Bobcats who dominated from start to finish, winning 9-0.
So far in 2022, Lees-McRae has not fared too well as they have started the year 0-2 with losses against Division I foe, Gardner-Webb, and fellow SAC rival of C-N's, nationally-ranked Wingate.
It was Bulldogs versus Bobcats last weekend as Wingate took no mercy on the visiting Bobcats, winning 7-0 as they won two of three doubles and swept every singles match. However, Lees-McRae did see the pairing of Sam Jones and Ezequiel Arce come away winners from number two doubles, 6-4. Then, in singles, Hanging Wang forced the match to a third set before he was overcome by his Wingate opposition as part of the clean sweep.
In their season opener against Gardner-Webb, the final score would also be 7-0 in favor of the Bulldogs over the Bobcats. However, the team of Landon Church and Max Borisov faced the top doubles team, battling hard but falling 6-3 in the end. Lees-McRae also saw some stiff match results in singles as three separate athletes were close to gaining victory.
The latest action of 2022 for LMC came against Lander on Wednesday as the opposition would win all three doubles matches before sweeping singles en route to a 7-0 victory over the Bobcats.
Opening serve from Harrogate is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. between the Eagles and Mountain Lions Friday. Meanwhile, the Eagles and Bobcats are set to square off starting at 2:00 p.m. Saturday from the Knoxville Racquet Club.
Be sure to keep up with all things Carson-Newman men's tennis at cneagles.com and on social media on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
-CN-
