JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman men's tennis (12-5, 6-2 SAC) were back at home Wednesday as they hosted an east Tennessee rival in the Tusculum Pioneers. Looking to make it two straight over the Pioneers, it would not be as much as the #43 Pioneers came into Mossy Creek and can leave with the 4-3 upset victory over the #24 Eagles.
"Today showcases how talented this conference is and how much we cannot expect an easy win," head coach Jim Frederick said. "This is a huge result for us to learn from as we know how deep this conference can be, especially as the tournament looms."
Ahead of the severe weather, the Eagles and Pioneers started their meeting with singles action before looking at potentially having doubles action commence. As the singles side of competition took place first, it was numbers one, three, and five flights on the courts first.
The first Eagle on the courts included senior Rintaro Oka (Narita, Japan) at number three as he faced Tusculum's Robin Eldin. In a rare one-sided competition, Oka only gained one game over the result as he fell 6-1, 6-0.
Then, the Orange and Blue saw freshman Marnix Van Dalen (Netherlands) gain his sixth win of the SAC season with a 6-2, 2-6, 7-6 victory over Tusculum's Frank Bonacia. The freshman has continued to be a pivotal part of C-N's success as he moves to 10-7 overall in the spring.
Finally, as the Eagles were tied 1-1 with the Pioneers, junior Ids Waterbolk (Bennekom, Netherlands) looked to give C-N early momentum at number five singles. However, he would fall 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 to TU's Nathan Matsuguma. The most frustrating part for Waterbolk was holding a match point over his opponent and failing to fully capture the point.
"This is a very stout team and we knew it would not be an easy challenge no matter what," Frederick said. "We are playing some of our best tennis, but we need high-level play from start to finish in order to prove we belong in a deep and talented conference like this one."
The Eagles would see Marc Janse (Zeewolde, Netherlands) get his day started off strong with a 7-6, 6-4 victory at number two over Tusculum's Nemanja Subanovic. With his win, Janse moves to 14-3 with all matches at the number two flight.
The Eagles were looking to make it 3-2 as freshman Gjorgji Jankulvoski was in action at the number four flight. After being ahead 5-2 in the first set, Jankulovski would suffer a massive setback as he would lose the first set 7-6 in a tiebreaker. Then, in the second set, the freshman would have to storm back and force another tiebreaker in hopes of moving to a third set. However, Tusculum would gain the 3-2 overall advantage as Kenta Kondou claimed another tiebreaker result.
The final singles match saw C-N tie it all up once more as sophomore Lars Hordijk played at number six. After winning the first set 6-4, Hordijk was in control to close out the match in two sets. He would not be able to as Tusculum forced a third set with a 5-7 second set win. Then, in the third set, Hordijk made it 3-3 between the two sides as he won 6-3.
As the two programs were tied, it would all come down to claiming the doubles point in order to gather another crucial SAC win in 2022.
Number three doubles saw Van Dalen and Oka face Tusculum's Bonacia/Kondou as the Pioneers were only one game away from a clean result, winning 6-1 and moving one step closer to overall victory and an upset.
However, C-N would not go away quietly as number two doubles would be won 6-2 by Marc Janse and Lars Hordijk. Their momentum was short-lived as number one doubles was back-and-forth to begin play, but once TU gained the edge, they never let it go en route to a 6-3 win and the upset victory over the #27 Eagles.
The Eagles continue their SAC season with a road trip to Newberry, S.C. on Friday as the Eagles look to prepare for battle with the Wolves. First serve is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. Then, on Saturday, the Eagles will head to Charlotte for a meeting with the Queens (N.C.) Royals as the Eagles look to control their destiny in the SAC standings.
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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