HARROGATE, Tenn. – After dropping their first match of 2022, Carson-Newman men's tennis responded in a massive way, taking down fellow Division II foe Young Harris Friday afternoon. As the Eagles and Mountain Lions squared off from the LMU Tennis Complex, it was C-N taking home a 6-1 result and moving above .500 in the early stages of the spring season.
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.
Friday started off with the Eagles (2-1, 0-0 SAC) taking the early advantage over YHC (2-1, 0-0 PBC) and gaining the early 1-0 advantage after doubles.
Junior Marc Janse (Zeewolde, Netherlands) and sophomore Lars Hordijk (Dordrecht, South Holland) have been a formidable force playing number one doubles for C-N. Friday saw the pair help get C-N started as they would get their second win of 2022 by a 6-1 result. Then, junior Ids Waterbolk (Bennekom, Netherlands) and freshman Gjorgji Jankulovski (Macedonia) clinched the doubles point for the Eagles as they kept their winning ways alive with a 6-3 victory.
Unfortunately for the Eagles, it would not be a clean doubles sweep as freshman Marnix Van Dalen (Netherlands) and senior Rintaro Oka (Narita, Japan) came up a little short, falling 6-4 in number three doubles.
"We have to prove every weekend how good we are, and today the boys did it again," head coach Jim Frederick said. "With very strong doubles, we got the doubles point, and the first three singles points were just dominated from beginning to end."
Then, in singles action, Gjorgji Jankulovski would make it 2-0 Eagles after winning his second straight singles match in his debut season by a final of 6-1, 6-1. He would be followed up by his doubles partner, Ids Waterbolk, as Waterbolk remained undefeated in 2022 with a final result of 6-1, 6-2.
The Eagles continued to fight hard as Marc Janse would blow the Eagles lead to 4-0 with a massive 6-4, 7-5 result from number two singles as the Eagles looked to keep the pressure on the Mountain Lions.
Then, the Eagles pulled away for sure as they received two more singles victories to finish off the 6-1 team victory. First, Rintaro Oka swept his number three singles match with a 6-1, 7-5 victory to make it 5-0 C-N. Finally, Lars Hordijk played number five singles once more as he would gather C-N's sixth point on Friday with a 6-3, 6-3 victory.
Unfortunately, freshman Marnix Van Dalen suffered a small setback from number one singles as he fell in two sets. The lone Mountain Lions win came as YHC took the number one singles match 6-4, 7-5 to avoid a clean sweep by the Eagles.
The Eagles return to action tomorrow as they face off with the Lees-McRae Bobcats. Saturday will mark the first time since 2011 that the Eagles and Bobcats square off in dual meet fashion as first serve is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. Saturday from the Knoxville Racquet Club.
Be sure to keep up with all things Carson-Newman tennis at cneagles.com and on all social media.
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