MARS HILL, N.C. – Looking to rebound after dropping their first SAC contest of the spring, no. 24 Carson-Newman men's tennis (11-4, 5-1 SAC) was on the road once more as they headed to Mars Hill for a battle with the Lions.
Wednesday started off with the Eagles cleaning house as they swept all three doubles matches and would be ahead 1-0 heading into singles play.
In number two doubles, the Orange and Blue pairing of Marc Janse (Zeewolde, Netherlands) and Lars Hordijk (Dordrecht, South Holland) continued their winning streak as a pair, clinching the first C-N win on the day by a final of 6-0.
From there, the doubles point would be clinched for C-N as Ids Waterbolk (Bennekom, Netherlands) and Gjorgji Jankulovski (Macedonia) would look almost flawless as well, winning 6-1 and putting the Eagles ahead early on.
Finally, in number three doubles, the clean sweep of doubles came by way of Marnix Van Dalen (Netherlands) and Rintaro Oka wrapping up action with a tight 7-5 decision in their favor.
"The win today for the boys was good in order to go back to winning before a very big matchup ahead on Saturday," graduate coach Gabriel Dabdab said.
Singles competition saw the Eagles hold nothing back and leave no doubt, as all six singles matches would go the way of the Orange and Blue. In fact, three out of the six singles matches only saw an eight-game superset format as the match was decided early on by C-N.
Continuing his impressive singles play in 2022, junior Ids Waterbolk only dropped two games over his match, winning 6-2, 6-0 and moving the Eagles ahead 2-0 over the Lions.
The wins kept on coming for the no. 24 team in DII men's tennis as freshman Marnix Van Dalen would be next to finish. After facing one of the SAC's premier athletes in L-R's Rhodri Atkinson, the freshman responded nicely to take a 6-2, 6-0 victory and move C-N one step closer to a match clincher.
It did not take much longer for the Eagles to officially clinch the match as senior Rintaro Oka was cool as a cucumber, per usual, en route to a 6-1, 6-3 win. With his win, Oka secured the sixth straight victory over Mars Hill for the Orange and Blue, including their fourth straight win over the Lions on the road.
Then, numbers two, four and six singles finished off the day as all three would be played in the format of an eight-game superset.
First, Marc Janse would complete another round of singles play for his 2022 campaign as the junior would win 8-3 and push C-N ahead 5-0. Then, the lead swelled to an untouchable 6-0 for the Eagles as freshman Gjorgji Jankulovski absolutely dominated his way to an 8-2 win. The final win, making it a clean Eagles sweep, came from Lars Hordijk who saw a 8-4 victory added to his tally.
The Eagles now turn their attention to a pivotal matchup for the SAC standings as no. 29 Wingate, currently riding a three-match win streak, comes into town for a 10 a.m. first serve.
"The key with Wingate is that they always have a deep lineup and seem to be strong in every position, but so are we and we've proved it this season," Dabdab said.
Be sure to keep up with all things Carson-Newman men's tennis via cneagles.com and on all social media outlets.
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